Manifestations
by SilvorMoon
Summary: Part 2 up! Sora gets good news, Jyou meets his dark side (or something), and a secret gets revealed. Who knew superpowers were so much trouble?
1. First Manifestation

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First Manifestations

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By: SilvorMoon

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It was not the kind of day that one would expect to breed anger and fear. The sun was still shining for all it was worth, as if determined that the last few hours of the day would be bright and cheerful ones, and a few fluffy clouds floated through the brilliant blue sky. The air was pleasantly warm, and the park Taichi walked through was alive with vegetation and playful schoolchildren. Taichi ignored everything around him, storming up the path with Agumon trailing uncertainly behind him. 

"I can't believe it," the boy muttered. "It should have been perfect... how could we lose?" 

"Everybody has to lose sometime," said Agumon comfortingly. "Besides, it was just a soccer game. There will be other games." 

"It was the semifinals!" Taichi moaned. "If we'd just won this game... We could have gone on to the championship, and instead I let everything go down the tubes." 

"It wasn't your fault. You did everything you could have done." 

"It is too my fault! I was the captain; it's my job to help the team win and we didn't!" 

"Taichi, it's a team," Agumon reminded him gently. "It's up to every player to help the team win, not just you. Besides, sometimes the other team is just better. There's nothing you can do about that." 

"I know," sighed Taichi. "It's just... this was my last year on the team before I go off to college. I'll never get another chance, now. It's just so frustrating knowing I was that close to winning, and... argh!" 

Seething with annoyance, he rammed his hand at a nearby tree. He expected, as anyone would, that he'd end up with nothing for the trouble but sore knuckles. Instead, there was a sharp _crack_, and much to his amazement, the tree snapped in half and toppled to the ground. Agumon had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by a branch. Taichi stared. 

"Whoa," he said softly. "How did that happen?" 

"How hard did you hit that thing?" asked Agumon. 

"Not _that_ hard," said Taichi. "_Nobody_ could hit it that hard. It just cracked in half..." 

"Maybe it was rotten inside?" Agumon suggested uncertainly. 

"I dunno," answered Taichi, stepping closer for a better look. "It looks pretty healthy to me. Look here." 

He reached out to point at the place where the tree had split, and then stopped. He stared down at his hand. He turned it over a few times, slowly going pale behind his suntan. Sensing something was wrong, Agumon walked a little closer for a better look. He, too, stopped and stared. 

"What happened to your hands?" he asked, stunned. 

"I - I don't know," Taichi answered. 

Where he was quite certain he'd had fingers a few minutes ago, he now had a row of claws, all of them glinting like steel, apparently razor sharp and tapering to needle points. They looked more than capable of slicing through just about anything. He flexed them carefully, trying to reassure himself that he was neither dreaming or going crazy. He ran the point of one claw along the palm of his other hand, drawing a thin line of blood. The claws felt awfully real to him. 

"Well," he said, "I guess that explains the tree." 

"What are you going to do?" asked Agumon. "You can't go around with claws like that - people will see them!" 

"I know that," answered Taichi. "We've got to get help. Come on." 

He began jogging up the path as fast as he could go, careful not to clench his fists too tightly. Agumon scampered along behind him. 

"Where are we going to get help?" he asked. 

"From the only person around who'd understand weird stuff like this," Taichi replied. "Koushiro." 

~*~

Koushiro stared at his laptop, trying to ignore the headache that was slowly but surely rising. He'd been plagued by many such headaches lately, some of them so bad that he had to stop everything he was doing and lie down a while until they went away, and he was getting very tired of them. His parents had taken him to the doctor's office, hoping to pinpoint the source of the problem. The results had been, to Koushiro's mind, quite unsatisfactory. After examining him thoroughly, the doctor had chalked the pains up to stress, given him a bottle of painkillers, told him to take it easy, and sent him home. Koushiro had dutifully taken his medicine, but it was of very little help. These headaches were unlike anything he'd ever had before - not just pain, but a weird, tingly sensation like what he got in his foot when it fell asleep, coupled in the most serious cases by a dizzy sensation that made him feel as if he were floating a few inches outside himself. His instincts were telling him that stress wasn't likely to cause all that. 

Not that he didn't have plenty of stress in his life right now. College entrance exams were coming up sooner than he would have liked, and he had no intention of becoming a _ronin_, one of the "masterless knights" that had to spend an extra year or years studying because they couldn't get into a good college. His parents were well aware of how intelligent he was, and fully expected him to get into one of the best schools in the country. He didn't dare let them down. Still, that wasn't going to be easy, the way his head was hurting. 

He stood up, stretching his stiff muscles. Maybe relaxing _would_ help him a bit. It certainly couldn't hurt; he'd been going over and over these notes since he'd come home from school, and he was getting tired. He would get a drink of water, take one of those headache pills, and possibly also a nap. Massaging his throbbing temples, he shuffled into the bathroom to find his medicine and a cup. 

He had just finished filling the cup and was raising it to his mouth when everything seemed to explode. His head was filled with blinding pains, so sharp that the world around him started going black and dancing with wild lights. It was splitting open and he was spilling out of himself, spinning and whirling sickeningly through the ether, and- 

_...It was ridiculous what things cost these days. Just a stupid can of peaches, and they wanted how many hundred yen for it? They were all out to cheat her, that's what it was; they didn't appreciate how hard it was to be a housewife, as long as they could get her money..._

_...Where had he parked, anyway? He was always a little nervous about these big parking lots, the ones where you couldn't see your car from the front door and you had to make your best guess where you parked, because he could never remember. He was always a little paranoid that someone had stolen his car and he'd just walk around the parking lot thinking he just couldn't find it..._

_...She skipped up the street feeling happier than she had in a long time. Today had been such a perfect day. She'd gotten perfect scores on all her schoolwork, the weather was gorgeous, and Takeo had finally asked her out! Life held no greater joy than that, and she was almost dizzy with the happiness of it all..._

Koushiro's mind slowly stopped spinning, and then he was no one but himself again, standing in his own bathroom and looking at the wet spot on the floor where he'd dropped his cup of water. Feeling slightly shaky, he found a washcloth and began mopping up the mess. It took him a moment to realize his headache was gone, as if it had never been. 

"Are you okay?" asked Tentomon, peeking through the doorway. "You've been in there a long time." 

"Sorry," Koushiro replied. "Something weird just happened. It's like... for a minute there, I was outside myself. I was someone else for a few minutes - lots of different people. I was in their minds." 

"Are you sure you're okay?" asked the bug dubiously. "You know you haven't been feeling well lately..." 

"I am not hallucinating!" said Koushiro. "It really happened! I was seeing through someone else's eyes - feeling what they felt, thinking their thoughts. I was right there with them. Do you have any idea how weird it was to be a middle-aged housewife instead of me?" 

"It still sounds like a dream to me." 

"It wasn't a dream," Koushiro answered. "I'll tell you this: my head was hurting like anything right up until that point. Then when I... burst out like that, it stopped. I've been telling you these are no ordinary headaches. I think they were building up to this, and I'd bet my best laptop it's going to happen again." 

"So what are you going to do about it?" asked Tentomon. 

"The only thing I can do - wait and see what happens next." 

~*~

Jyou was nervous. This was nothing unusual; Jyou could always find something to be nervous about, everything from world disasters to minor illnesses. Being at school only seemed to heighten this difficulty. There were always tests and homework and studying to occupy his attention, and unlike many students, Jyou was determined to get the very best grades. While the others around him laughed and chattered, quite unconcerned about how they were going to do on today's test, Jyou was on the edge of his seat with nervousness. 

*_I've really got to learn to break this habit,_* he reflected, chewing on his eraser. *_I'm going to get sick if I keep acting like this... I just can't seem to help it. I tell myself I shouldn't get so worked up over little things like this after everything I've been through, but it just happens anyway._* 

He took a few deep breaths, trying to get himself under control as the teacher walked into the room. Jyou had never liked this particular professor, a stern elderly woman who had little patience with students who were slow to catch on and would take off points for any offense she could find. Getting chewed out by a teacher wasn't an experience Jyou often had, and the fact that this teacher found reasons to scold him as often as she scolded anyone else made him uncomfortable at the least. He kept his eyes closed as she called the class to order and gave them their instructions for the test, but he couldn't help watching as she began distributing the papers. He was in the fourth row away from her, so he had plenty of time to sit and watch her move slowly forward. He tried to calm himself by going over his notes in his mind, but his brain felt frozen. 

*_I don't want to do this, I just don't want to do this..._* he thought fretfully. *_I just wish I could be somewhere else, anywhere but here. I just want to disappear..._* 

With his stomach in knots, he watched as the teacher finished with the second row and began working on the third one. The room was getting quiet now; he could hear nothing but the sounds of pencils scratching on paper and the click of the teacher's shoes on the hard floor as she moved unstoppably forward. Jyou could not remember ever feeling quite this jumpy before; there was a weird feeling building inside him that made him feel oddly like a cloud about to shoot off a bolt of lightning. He could believe anyone who tried to touch him would get shocked. He tried to calm himself down, closing his eyes and imagining that he was not in this classroom, but outside where the air was fresh and cool and it wouldn't be so hard to breathe. He enjoyed a brief fantasy of what it would be like if he wasn't in this classroom anymore, and everyone was wondering where he'd gone. He wondered if anyone would even miss his presence. 

The sound of clicking heels stopped, and Jyou opened his eyes. Clearly he had been daydreaming a bit too long, for the teacher had stopped walking and was now staring down at his desk with a disapproving expression. He tried an apologetic smile. 

"Sorry," he said, "I was just-" 

"Where is Kido-san?" she asked. 

"I don't know," said a nearby student. "He was there just a minute ago." 

"Huh?" said Jyou. "What are you talking about? I'm right here." 

"Maybe he had to go to the bathroom?" a girl suggested. 

"He'd better not be cutting class," the teacher said ominously. 

"His stuff's still here," said one student. "He can't have gone far." 

"I haven't gone anywhere!" Jyou protested. "Can't you see me? I'm right here talking to you." 

"How did he get out of class without us seeing him?" someone wondered. 

"He must have been sneaking while my back was turned," said the teacher. "When he gets back, I'm going to give him a talking to. Students are supposed to ask permission before leaving the classroom." 

Jyou stared. There was a bit of a scene building up now, as the class speculated on where Jyou might have gone and how he did it without being seen. None of them seemed to realize that the subject of their debate was still there listening to them. Completely confused, Jyou looked down to make sure he was still there, and found himself staring at the top of his desk and an empty chair. 

*_Invisible?_* he thought, stunned. *_But how? ... No time to worry about that now. I must be inaudible if they can't hear me, either... This is really weird._* 

Very carefully, he got up from his chair and began walking around. Nobody seemed to notice him, not even when he waved a hand in front of someone's face or spoke directly into their ear. 

"Am I right," he said loudly, "in believing none of you can see or hear me at all? Because if I am right, there's no reason why I ought to take this stupid test." 

There was no answer. The class seemed to have resigned itself to the loss of one of their members, and was now busy taking their test under the watchful eye of their teacher. He felt a strong temptation to start writing things on the board to see if _that_ would get their attention, but decided against it. Tempting as it was, he just didn't feel right about acting out that kind of mischief, even if he _was_ invisible. Instead, he carefully tiptoed towards the door, opened it a crack, and slipped outside. He didn't notice that the words, "Okamoto-sensei is a big fat idiot" wrote themselves across the chalkboard, shimmered there for a moment, and then faded out of sight again. 

Meanwhile, Jyou was making tracks up the hallway, going in search of his partner. Gomamon's personality was not suited for classrooms, so he usually stayed outside. There was a decorative fishpond on the university grounds, and once he'd been convinced that the goldfish were to be ornamental and not edible, he'd been allowed to stay outside and play there while his partner pursued his scholarly activities. Now he was happily paddling around the pool, enjoying the pleasant weather. Then, as Jyou drew nearer, the seal stopped what he was doing and stared. 

"Jyou?" he called uncertainly. "Are you here?" 

"Yeah, I'm here," said Jyou, hoping desperately that Gomamon, at least, could hear him. 

"Really?" asked Gomamon. "I can hear you, but I can't see you." 

"That makes two of us," Jyou muttered. 

"What? You can't see me?" 

"No, I can't see _me_," said Jyou, "and neither can anyone else. One minute I was in class, and the next minute... well, I was still in class, but nobody thought I was." 

"Why didn't you tell them?" Gomamon asked. 

"I did! It was like they couldn't hear me," answered Jyou helplessly. "Man, I'm going to get in so much trouble for this..." 

"How can you get in trouble? It's not your fault you're invisible, is it?" 

"I know that, but nobody else does. Besides, who's going to believe I wasn't in class because I randomly disappeared?" 

"Why not? Weirder things have happened to you before." 

"Yeah, well..." Jyou muttered. "I can't prove this. How can I prove I'm invisible and inaudible? When I am, I can't show or tell anyone, and when I'm not, there's no proof left." 

"Write it down," Gomamon suggested. "Or go up and hit somebody. Then they'll know you're there." 

"That's really practical," Jyou muttered. "Somehow, I don't think this is the kind of thing ordinary people are going to be able to help me with." 

"Guess we'd better find some of the others, then, huh?" asked Gomamon. 

"Guess so," Jyou agreed, "and hope they can hear me like you can." 

He sighed gloomily, thinking of the long walk he was going to have to make from the university to part of the city his friends were in. Somehow, he didn't think he'd have much luck catching a cab. 

~*~

Sora stared with dismay at the telephone. 

"Again?" she asked, dismayed. 

"I'm sorry, Sora," her father replied. "You know I'm sorry." 

"But Dad, this is the third time this year! You promised it wouldn't happen again." 

"I know, honey. I really don't mean to keep doing this. Things just keep coming up," answered Professor Takenouchi. "This conference is very important. I have to go. I'll come back on Monday and we'll do something then, all right?" 

Sora was not completely appeased. "You said you'd spend the weekend." 

"Well, I'm sorry, but that's just not an option right now." 

"Can't you go some other time?" 

"I could, but it would be a setback. If I don't go, I'm going to miss out on a lot of important things." 

"More important than me?" 

Professor Takenouchi sighed. "Sora, we've had this discussion before. If I want to keep my job, there are things I have to do. This conference is one of them." 

"I know, I know," said Sora sadly. "It's just... I was looking forward to seeing you again. You've been away for a long time..." 

"I was looking forward to seeing you, too," her father replied. "It's just not going to work out this time, not the way we planned it. I _will_ come see you soon, though. I'll make something work out if I have to hitchhike all the way to you!" 

That made Sora smile a bit. "Thanks, Dad." 

"Don't you worry," he said. "We'll be together soon. And now I have to get going - I have an appointment tonight." 

"Okay. Don't be late." 

"I won't if I don't spend any more time on the phone. See you, Sora." 

"Bye, Dad." 

Sora hung up the phone with a faint sigh. Piyomon hopped closer to offer her support. 

"What did he say?" she chirped. 

"He's not coming," Sora replied. "Again." 

"I'm sure he would come if he could," said the bird soothingly. 

"I know," said Sora. "I just don't like it that he _can't_. It happens every time - he says he's coming home, and then something comes up. I wish he had a job close to home, so he wouldn't have to keep doing this." 

"Can't he look for one?" 

"I guess he could... but I don't know if he'd want to. Dad loves his work. He likes traveling around and seeing things. He'd get frustrated if he had to stay here all the time." She gave a faint, sad smile. "I wonder if this is how Mom felt when I was out in the Digital World? Wishing I didn't have to go and knowing I did..." 

"Let's not stay in here and worry about it," said Piyomon. "It won't make you feel any better." 

"That's true," Sora replied. "Sitting around moping won't do any good. Besides, we shouldn't be indoors on a day like today. Let's take a walk." 

"Can I fly instead?" asked Piyomon. 

Sora laughed. "Sure! Do anything you want." 

They went outside, blinking as they stepped into the sunlight. Sora smiled a little, turning her face toward the breeze and letting it toss her hair. The fresh air revived her a bit - it was hard for her to feel depressed when she was out here enjoying a cool breeze. As if trying to be agreeable, the wind picked up, making her clothing flutter around her. She enjoyed the sensation for a while before setting out on her walk. The breeze followed her, as if it intended to keep her company. 

Despite the fact that Sora had come here to get her mind off her troubles, she found that the more she walked, the more her brain began to spin. It was just so frustrating! Why did she have to always come second place to her father's job? There ought to be a way that they could spend some time together. Couldn't her parents look for a new apartment closer to the university? But that would mean leaving Odaiba and being far away from her friends, and she didn't really want that, did she? She frowned; the more she thought about things, the more impossible they began to look. 

Unnoticed, Piyomon trotted along beside her partner. She, too, was beginning to feel uneasy, not so much because of her partner's troubles as because the weather seemed to have taken a sudden turn for the worse. When they had left their home, it had been warm and sunny, with only a soft breeze to stir the air. Now the breeze was a respectable wind that whipped past them, tugging at Sora's clothing and bending Piyomon's feathers in the wrong direction. The little bird shivered a little; this wind was cold! More than that, they seemed to have lost their sunshine, for the sky above them was rapidly filling with clouds. 

"Sora," said Piyomon, "do you think maybe we should turn back? It looks like it's going to rain." 

"I don't care if it rains," said Sora dully. "It doesn't really matter, anyway." 

As she spoke, a single teardrop escaped to roll down her cheek. At that moment, the sky opened and began pouring down cold rain. The people on the streets, dressed for the warm and sunny weather, made dashes for the nearest shelter. Sora just stood where she was, looking up at the rain as if in a trance. Piyomon stared in astonishment. There was something very odd about this weather. Through the gaps between buildings, she could see that it was still bright and sunny in other parts of the city. For another thing, rain was now driving down in sheets all around them... but not where Sora stood. An area spreading about two feet all around her was perfectly dry. 

"Something weird is going on!" Piyomon complained. "Can we go now? Please?" 

Sora continued to stare at the sky as if hypnotized. A peculiarly blank look had come into her eyes; normally a soft brown, they now looked the color of storm clouds. Seeing that just words weren't going to have the effect she wanted, Piyomon decided she needed to take some more direct action, so she took a few paces back and gave her partner a determined shove. 

The result was instantaneous. The moment of impact, there was a sudden rippling sensation in the air as if shock waves were rolling out from the two of them. Piyomon was conscious of a buzz and a _CRACK!_ and a searing flash of light. Then she and Sora were lying on a wet sidewalk, feeling the last few timid raindrops quietly depositing themselves on their skin and feathers. There was still a dry circle where Sora had been standing, but now it had a scorch mark and some radiating cracks. 

"What happened?" asked Sora dazedly, rubbing her head. "Has it been raining?" 

"Are you all right?" Piyomon asked. "You looked so far away for a minute, and weird things were happening." 

"Yes," said Sora. "I was far away. I was in the clouds..." She shook herself. "Good grief, what happened to the sidewalk?" 

"Lightning struck it," said Piyomon. 

"But that's impossible," Sora answered. "Lightning only strikes the highest points. It doesn't hit sidewalks!" 

"It did this time! I saw it. You were staring up at the sky, and your eyes went all grey and distant, and then the lightning struck," said Piyomon. She paused, thinking. "It rained when you started to cry, on everything but you." 

Sora shook her head. "That's not... it couldn't have happened. Are you trying to tell me that the weather... this happened because of me?" 

"It was sunny until you came out," said Piyomon with a shrug of her wings. 

"Hm," said Sora. 

"Don't you remember anything?" 

Sora frowned. "I remember... being very far away, and very high up, like I was suddenly a cloud...." She shook her head, as if to rid herself of a nightmare. Looking at the sky, she saw that the clouds above her were now breaking up, fading from ominous blue-gray to pale silver to white to nothing at all. All that was left of the moment of strangeness were a few puddles and a slightly damaged sidewalk. Even so, Sora had the creeping feeling that now was a good time to try to get in out of the rain. 

~*~

Ken Ichijouji sat on a waiting-room chair, flipping through a magazine without really reading it. Wormmon sat draped on his shoulder, trying to offer what moral support he could. Ken was glad of the company. There had been a time when he had been immune to worries like this; as the Kaiser, he'd had practically no emotions whatsoever. Now all his feelings were back in business again, but they had yet to completely reorganize themselves. Even now, many of his childhood worries and fears, buried for so long, continued to resurface... including a childish dislike of doctor's offices. 

*_This is silly,_* he scolded himself, trying to throttle down a worried shiver. *_You've got nothing to be afraid of. Even getting shots doesn't hurt that much._* Thinking back to his Digital World days, he thought wryly, *_Your teammates have hurt you more than your doctor probably will._* 

"Ichijouji-san?" called a nurse. "The doctor will see you now." 

"Coming," said Ken, getting to his feet. 

The nurse watched him coming with a look of apprehension, and Ken heaved a mental sigh. He'd seen that look before, the slight widening of the eyes and a curl of the lips, the way she moved to take a step backwards. It happened a lot, particularly with sanitary-minded women. He knew what was coming next. 

"Could you... leave your caterpillar behind, please?" 

Ken's shoulders slumped in resignation. "Sure." 

He gently lifted his partner from his perch and set him gently onto an unused chair. 

"Sorry, Wormmon," he said. "You know how it goes." 

Wormmon's antennae drooped. "I wanted to come with you." 

"I wish I could bring you with me, but we don't want to cause any trouble. Just sit here and wait for me. I won't be gone long." 

Brave words, Ken mused, as he walked into the examination room. He felt that this was entirely unfair; his nerves were not what they had once been, and he relied heavily on Wormmon for moral support in situations like this. He obeyed the nurse's order to sit down on an examining table with his stomach crawling, thinking to himself that he was going to have to talk to his parents about finding him a nice doctor who wasn't afraid of bugs. 

There was a long unexplained wait. Ken sat on the table, swinging his feet a few inches above the ground as he waited for something to happen, trying not to look at the jars of bandages and sharp-looking instruments that lined the shelves. There were posters on the walls, and he tried to interest himself in them, but they were all unfriendly things like the symptoms of assorted juvenile diseases. Soft music was playing from a speaker above his head, but it was rather drowned out from some noise down the hall; it seemed a small child had been brought in for a shot, and the child was objecting violently, screaming as if he expected to be murdered at any second. It was something less than calming. 

At last, the doctor himself arrived. He was a professional-looking sort, with neatly clipped, graying hair and a short beard. At the moment, he suited Ken's mood rather well, in that he had a way of looking over the rims of his glasses that made Ken feel six years old again. 

"Well, how are we feeling today, hm?" he asked. 

"Okay," said Ken, who was now feeling not at all well. Maybe it was the antiseptic smell of the room, but his stomach was starting to feel more than just a little nervous, and he wondered if he looked as pale as he felt. The palms of his hands were sweating, and he tried to discreetly wipe them on his jeans. 

"That's good. We'll just see what we can do to keep you feeling that way." 

*_If I keep on feeling this way, I'm in trouble,_* thought Ken as the doctor began investigating his eyes and ears. The queasy feeling was still with him, and as the doctor was putting the tongue depressor in his throat, he wondered what would happen if he threw up on the distinguished doctor. 

"All clear here," said the doctor, mercifully allowing Ken to close his mouth and to try to get the wooden taste out of his mouth. "Now we'll just have a listen to your heart..." 

However, before he could follow through with that, there was a sudden crashing noise, as one of the pictures on the wall abruptly jumped off the wall and dropped itself rather energetically on the floor, spraying broken glass in all directions. Both Ken and the doctor cringed. 

"What was that?" asked Ken, staring at the mess. 

"Looks like we just lost a picture," said the doctor. "Don't worry; I'll get someone to clean it up. Maybe we'd better put you into one of the other rooms for a while." 

The doctor herded him down the hall and into a different room, and Ken allowed himself to be herded. He was thinking about the picture. It hadn't simply fallen, he was sure. He remembered with almost photographic clarity the way the picture lay facedown on the floor, and the solid nail sticking out of the now empty wall. The wire holding the picture up had not been broken; the nail was still in place. There was no indication of why the picture should have suddenly decided to fall, and Ken got the weird feeling that that was exactly what happened. He had a strange image in his head - it couldn't possibly be a memory - of the picture leaping several feet across the room before it landed. It couldn't have done that, of course... but why had it been lying in the middle of the floor? 

He continued to mull over the issue while a nurse in the other room measured him, weighed him, and tested his eyesight. The idea made him uneasy; he couldn't seem to convince himself that he had not seen a picture jump off a wall and fling itself into the air. It didn't seem right, somehow, and he was not keen on going back into that office again. 

"Don't worry," said the doctor, catching the look on Ken's face as he made his reentry. "Everything is cleaned up now." 

Ken got back on the examining table, moving as gingerly as if he thought there was still broken glass strewn across the floor. The doctor was flipping through his charts. 

"Looks like all we need to do right now is listen to your heart and lungs a bit, do a quick blood pressure check - oh, and take a blood sample." 

Ken swallowed hard. That was what he'd been hoping to avoid. He still suffered from a childish, irrational fear of being stuck with needles, and he was still wishing he could find some way of getting out of this situation. The feeling continued to build as his checkup progressed until he felt ready to explode. Just as the doctor was finishing up the blood test... 

_POP._

Ken jumped, nearly spiking himself again on the needle. A jar full of cotton balls had abruptly exploded, spraying the room with bits of plastic and cotton. 

"What in the...?" the doctor exclaimed. "What just happened?" 

"Uhh... I think I need to get out of here," said Ken. "Bye!" 

Before the doctor could react, Ken jumped down off the table and darted out the room, leaving the doctor standing bewildered in the middle of the office, covered in cotton balls. 

~*~

Taichi raised a hand to knock on Koushiro's door. 

"It's okay, Taichi, the door's unlocked," Koushiro called. 

Taichi and Agumon looked at each other. 

"How did he know it was me?" Taichi asked. Agumon just shrugged. 

The door was indeed unlocked, so the two of them went in. They found Koushiro sitting in the middle of the living room rug, with his legs crossed tailor style and his hands on his knees. His eyes were closed. Tentomon was sitting on the sofa watching him, and though his face was not made for facial expressions, he still looked rather puzzled. 

"Come on in," said Koushiro. "The others will be here soon, I think." 

"They will?" asked Taichi. "Koushiro, what's going on? How did you know I was coming?" 

"I'm not entirely sure yet," he said. "About either of those. I just knew you were coming and you were worried about something. You are worried about something, aren't you?" 

"That's right. Something weird happened today. Look!" 

Taichi offered his claws for inspection, and Koushiro slowly opened his eyes, shaking himself as if he'd been half-asleep. 

"Well, that's interesting," he said, getting up to have a closer look. 

"Be careful; they're sharp," Taichi warned. "I accidentally took out a tree with them a little while ago." 

"A _tree_?" 

"Well, it was a small tree." 

"You should be more careful, Taichi. We need all the trees we can get." 

"Yeah, I know. Skip the ecology lesson, would you? What I want to know is why I'm suddenly turning into a vegetable slicer." 

"I'd like some answers, myself," said Koushiro. "You're not the only one who's had a weird afternoon." 

"Yeah, you said the others were coming. What happened to them?" 

Koushiro shrugged. "I'm really not sure. I've been trying to find out, but it's... hard to control." 

Taichi and Agumon made identical confused faces. 

"What's hard to control?" asked Taichi. 

Koushiro shrugged. "It's a little hard to explain. I'd really rather wait until the others show up. Then we can all explain at once." 

"Fine," said Taichi. "Then can I at least have a drink or something? It's been hard day, and I'm thirsty." 

"Help yourself." 

Taichi carefully opened the fridge, noting that razor claws were not practical for opening things. Luckily, there was a can of soda within easy reach. Unluckily, he grabbed it a little too hard, and jets of cola sprayed across the floor. He looked with dismay at the ruined can and the puddles on the floor. Koushiro shook his head. 

"On second though," he said, "maybe I'd better get a drink for you." 

Within a few minutes, various other members of the Digidestined team arrived at Koushiro's apartment and began settling in. Ken was the last to arrive, carrying a confused Wormmon and looking rather winded, and was rather surprised to see how many of his friends seemed to have had the same idea. He was even more surprised to see Taichi sitting in a chair and sipping soda from a soup bowl that was cupped gingerly in his palms. 

"With all due respect to Tailmon," said Taichi, "I'm starting to feel like a cat." 

"Hi there. Come on in," Koushiro greeted. "Take a seat anywhere. No, not there, Ken - Jyou's sitting there." 

"He is?" asked Ken, staring at the apparently vacant furniture. 

"Yes, I am," said a gloomy voice from the vicinity of the chair. 

"Yeah, that's Jyou," said Sora with a shrug. "Only he could sound so depressed." 

"I'm not depressed," said Jyou. "I'm just annoyed because I'm stuck being invisible." 

"This is going to be a fun meeting," said Ken, shaking his head bemusedly. 

"Well, I think I have at least some idea why you're all here today," said Koushiro, glancing from Taichi's talons to the place where Jyou should have been. "Would anyone like to explain in a little more detail?" 

"Isn't it obvious?" said Jyou. "I'm _invisible_. I was inaudible a little while ago, but it looks like it's cleared up." 

"Too bad," Gomamon muttered. "Then we couldn't hear you complain." 

"Interesting," said Koushiro blandly. "Sora? What brings you here?" 

"I'm still not really sure," she said shakily. "I was just walking down the sidewalk, and out of nowhere it started to rain. You saw what the weather was like today - not a cloud in the sky, but it was coming down in buckets where I was... all but a few feet around me. And then Piyomon says I kind of blanked out for a while, and lightning struck the place I was standing." 

"I was at the doctor's office," said Ken, "and all of a sudden, things started blowing up around me for no reason. First this picture jumped off the wall and smashed itself on the floor, and then this jar of cotton balls exploded, so I ran out of the office. I took out two street lights and a flower pot on the way here." 

"Somehow, I'm not really surprised," said Koushiro thoughtfully. "Even without the other things going on, I wouldn't be surprised... Taichi? It's pretty obvious what your problem is." 

"Don't remind me," said Tachi, scowling at his hands. "It's a good thing I play soccer and not basketball. Can you imagine me trying to shoot hoops like this?" 

"As for me," said Koushiro, "I've been having these weird visions - like out of body experiences. For a few minutes, I'm suddenly someone else. Reading minds, in a way. I've been experimenting a little, trying to see if I can narrow the scope down. That's how I knew you all were in trouble." 

"So, do you have any idea why this is happening?" asked Sora. "It can't just be a coincidence, can it?" 

"I don't think it is," Koushiro replied. "We're just going to have to figure out _why_ this is happening now. Any suggestions?" 

"I have a question," said Ken. "Why did you say you weren't surprised? I would think making things randomly explode would count as surprising." 

"In and of itself, perhaps," said Koushiro, "but I've heard of that kind of thing before. You've heard of poltergeists, haven't you?" 

"Aren't they like ghosts?" asked Taichi dubiously. 

"That was what people used to think," Koushiro replied. "Now a lot of paranormal experts believe that the phenomenon is caused by emotional energy, particular from teenagers who are undergoing or have undergone some psychological stresses. No offense, Ken, but that fits you pretty well." 

Ken frowned a little, then shrugged. "Now that you mention it, today hasn't been one of my better days." 

"Really? Why not?" asked Sora. 

"Doctor's office," Ken replied with a grimace. "I know I'm too old to be afraid of a doctor, but..." 

"So you were afraid," said Koushiro thoughtfully, "and you were trying to repress it, and it manifested itself as telekinesis." 

"As what?" asked Taichi. 

"Moving things without touching them," Ken clarified. 

"Guess today's one of those days," said Taichi. "I was ticked off about losing the soccer match today. That's why I knocked the tree down. Of course, I didn't really _mean_ to knock it down, but..." 

Koushiro was looking thoughtful. "You know, Taichi, I think you might be on to something. Jyou, Sora, what were you doing when things started getting crazy?" 

"I was taking a test," said Jyou sulkily, "which I'm now probably going to flunk because they all think I was skipping class." 

"Yes, but you didn't really want to take it in the first place, did you?" 

"No, not really..." 

"Thought so," said Koushiro, with a nod of satisfaction. "Sora?" 

"I was taking a walk," said Sora. "Nothing special." 

"Are you sure?" Koushiro persisted. "Think. Did something happen to you while you were walking? Or before?" 

"Only that my dad called. He said... he said he couldn't come home this weekend," she said, with a catch in her voice. "I went for a walk to try to settle down." 

As she spoke, a wind blew outside, making the windows rattle, and the assembled company jumped. 

"It rained when she started to cry," Piyomon put in. 

Koushiro nodded. "And I've been worrying for weeks over my college entrance exams. It's official - all of us were stressed and worried today, and it came out as all this. Taichi got angry and sprouted claws; Sora cried and it came out as rain; Jyou was wishing he could be somewhere else and he could; Ken was scared and he made things explode; I was trying to know everything, and now I know more than I wanted to," he finished wryly. 

"There's got to be something more to it than that," said Ken. "I mean, not everyone has this stuff happen to them when they get upset." 

"We're not everyone," said Jyou. 

"True," said Koushiro. "Maybe it does have something to do with us being Chosen Children... or because we stayed in the Digital World for so long. I'll talk to Gennai about it and see if I can come up with some answers." 

"How long is that going to take?" asked Jyou. "I can't stay invisible like this all week!" 

"Actually," said Ken, "I can see you just fine." 

"You can?" Jyou asked, sounding surprised. At the same moment, he suddenly blinked back into view again. 

"Yes, I can see you perfectly," Ken replied, sounding smug. 

"How did you do that?" asked Koushiro. He sounded a bit miffed that Ken had figured out something he hadn't. 

Ken shrugged. "Just a hunch. I figured if he could make himself invisible just by wanting to be, I thought he might be able to make himself visible again if he thought he was." 

"Oh," said Koushiro. "I _think_ that's logical. Yes, that would be right - if this is in some sense a physical manifestation of some unconscious state..." 

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I started being audible again when I wanted to talk to Gomamon," said Jyou. 

"Techno-talk later," said Taichi. "If I'm understanding you two right, I should be able to get rid of these claws just by thinking they're not there anymore?" 

"Probably," Koushrio said. 

"All right, then! Maybe I should have gone looking for Ken instead of you." 

Taichi closed his eyes tightly, concentrating as hard as he could on his own ordinary hands. Slowly, reluctantly, the claws shrank away and were replaced by a set of human fingers. 

"Well, I'm glad that worked," said Taichi. "Do you think they'll come back? I don't want to have to deal with having razor blades stuck to my hands all the time." 

"They might," said Koushiro, "especially if you let yourself get upset again. If I were you, I'd double-check before you attend to any itches." 

"Cute," said Taichi. "Anyway, do you think any of the others are having this problem?" 

"Maybe they aren't having the day from down under," Jyou said. "If they're happy, they should be okay for now, right?" 

"Probably," said Koushiro. "We'd better watch our steps, though. We don't want to send anyone into a panic, but if you see any of the others, you might think about warning them... Oh, and tell them to stay calm!" 

~*~

Taichi walked home quickly, doing his best to keep his mind blank, concentrating only on where he was putting his feet. Almost without thinking, he began moving into a run. Tiring as his soccer game had been, it felt good to be dashing up the sidewalks with the wind in his hair, as if he could escape all his troubles if he just ran fast enough. He didn't even feel that tired, really, just pleasantly warm... 

"Hey, Taichi! Wait up!" 

Taichi skidded to a stop at a street corner and turned around. Agumon was trotting along a block behind him, waving a claw in a futile effort to attract his partner's attention. Taichi felt a bit sheepish; he hadn't realized he'd been running quite _that_ fast. 

"Sorry, pal," he said, when Agumon had drawn near enough that they could converse comfortably. "I guess I got a little carried away." 

"That's okay," Agumon replied. "I know you've had a tough day. You can't help having longer legs than me." 

That made Taichi laugh. "Hey, I'll tell you what. We're almost home - how about I carry you the rest of the way?" 

He knelt and let Agumon scramble onto his back so he could carry him piggy-back style. He never minded doing it - in this world of long-legged humans, there were some places that just weren't designed to be easy for a miniature dinosaur to reach. Still, it would have been hard work if they'd been planning to go more than a few blocks. Agumon might have been small, but he was also muscular, and weighed more than he looked like he might. Taichi could manage the load better now than he could have when he was eleven, but it still wasn't something that should have been easy to do after a long, stressful day. He was surprised when he straightened up; he barely felt the weight. Expecting more resistance, he straightened too fast and nearly tipped over. 

"Whoops!" he said. 

"Whoa!" Agumon yelped. 

"Sorry," said Taichi. "Lost my balance. I'm okay now." 

He moved into a trot, thinking. Either he was numb from shock, or something funny was going on. He wondered if snapping the poor tree in half had been done with more than just his sharp claws. Was something happening to him that couldn't be seen with the naked eye? He almost hoped so. Claws would be an inconvenience, but if it came with a boost in strength and speed, they might be worth the tradeoff. 

When he arrived at his apartment, he was still mulling over the implications of this strange new situation. He almost missed seeing his sister, and when she spoke, he nearly dropped Agumon all over again. 

"Hello, Taichi." 

Taichi jumped. "Don't startle me like that!" 

"Sorry. I didn't mean to." 

There was something odd about the way she spoke, something distant, as if she were worried or sad. Taichi looked at her for a clue. All he saw was her sitting curled up on the sofa, elbows propped on one of its arms, staring off into nowhere. Tailmon, sitting in a similar fashion nearby, met Taichi's gaze and shrugged. 

"She's just having one of those days," she explained. 

Taichi let Agumon slide down onto the nearest chair. "What kind of day is that? Don't tell me she had one like mine." 

Tailmon heard the disgust in his voice and misinterpreted it. 

"Well, it's not like she had a _bad_ day," she explained. "She's just in one of her weird moods. She'll snap out of it. She always does." 

"I dunno," said Taichi. "It's been one of those days all around... What _is_ wrong, anyway, Hikari?" 

"I don't know," she said, still in that faraway voice. "I just have this feeling... Like a power has settled around me. That sounds weird, doesn't it?" 

"Not as weird as you might think," Taichi muttered. "Do you know what kind of, um, power this is?" 

She shook her head. "No idea. I've felt something like it before, but I can't remember where. I haven't tried to use it. Should I, do you think?" 

"Maybe not," said Taichi. "Not until you hear what kind of day the rest of us are having." Briefly, he filled her in on the kind of troubles some of their friends were having. She listened with interest, but not disbelief. That was what he'd expected. He doubted there was anything left that Hikari would react to with disbelief. 

"I _knew_ something strange was going on today," said Hikari. "Maybe _that's_ the force I felt gathering." 

"You don't think you're going to start spontaneously breaking out in lightning bolts or something, do you?" Taichi asked. 

"I don't _think_ so," she said, but she didn't sound very certain. "Still, there's something..." 

"Well, if you feel something weird coming on, warn me about it," said Taichi. 

"I'll try," she said. "I can't promise much, though. If what you say is true, these things kind of sneak up on you." 

"Then maybe you should try it and get it over with?" Agumon suggested. "I mean, so far nothing _really_ bad hasn't happened..." 

"No, just annoying things," said Taichi, "and don't tell Jyou nothing really bad has happened after he gets chewed out for skipping his test." 

Hikari giggled, just a little, and looked more like her usual self. "I wouldn't dream of it." 

Tailmon seemed to be considering, flicking her ears back and forth. 

"I think maybe you _should_ test it," she said. "At least then you'll know what you're dealing with. Better that than have it jump out and surprise you while you're in school. What if you hurt someone?" 

"Good point," said Hikari. "Okay. Where can we practice where nobody will notice?" 

Taichi frowned, thinking. "How about... down by the beach, maybe? Nobody will be there, late as it is. The water's still too cold for swimming, anyway." 

"And you won't set anything on fire," said Agumon helpfully. 

"Great," said Hikari. "That's very comforting." 

They left the apartment, calling ambiguous excuses to their parents to the tune of wanting to take a walk. As the sun set slowly, they headed for the nearest stretch of seawater. It would have been a quick trip, had they been inclined to take the bus, but neither of them wanted to be seen if something were to happen to them unexpectedly. Instead, they walked. It took some time, and the sun had nearly set by the time they found a private area - a rarity in such a densely populated city. They managed to hide themselves away behind a warehouse by the docks, where some stacks of crates and loading equipment offered partial shielding. The workers who had been there earlier were now gone, and the only living things left were a few seagulls. 

"This looks like as good a spot as any," said Taichi. "I just hope we don't have to hang around too long. This isn't exactly the kind of place you want to be after dark." 

"I don't think it will take long," said Hikari. She was sounding far away again, looking out at the ocean. "I feel like this power almost wants to be used..." 

"Well, let's get it over with so we can go home," said Taichi, made uneasy by the strange look in her eyes. 

Hikari said nothing, but continued staring out at the water. She could feel something moving inside her, a vertigo-inducing tug. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, no worse than she would have felt riding a swing, or when Nefertimon carried her into battle. The more she gave into it, the more aware she became of the ocean moving around her. There was power moving there, too, in the pounding of the waves and shifting of the tides. Shifting her attention, she felt other things - a warm, fiery presence that was Agumon, a sense of strength and energy radiating from Taichi, a sense as of sharp edges from Gatomon, and, more distant, an electric humming of city lights. It felt warm and pleasant, like being in a fizzy whirlpool bath. 

"Um... Hikari?" That was Taichi's voice. He sounded far away. She didn't want to strain to listen to him, not while she was in this nice pleasant place. 

"Hikari!" That was Tailmon. Clearly they were not going to leave her alone. "Hikari, wake up! You've got to see this!" 

See what? What could be so important? Slowly, slowly, she opened her eyes. 

There was a very small thunderstorm in front of her. It hovered in place, flashing tiny bolts of lightning and driving rain into the steaming ocean surface. 

"Did I do that?" she asked aloud. 

"You must have," said Taichi, looking from her to the storm and back again. "I mean, that's not exactly natural, is it?" 

Curious, he reached out to put his hand into the streams of rain - and jerked it back. 

"Ouch! It's _hot_!" he yelped. 

"Is it?" asked Hikari. She reached out to touch it as well, then stopped. There was a shimmer of blades at her fingertips. Even as she looked, they melted away and left her with her usual fingers. She stared. 

"Claws," she said softly, "and water, and lightning, and heat..." 

"What are you talking about?" Taichi asked. 

"Just a minute ago, I was thinking about the water in the ocean, and I could feel the way it moved... and I felt Agumon's fire, and Tailmon's claws - maybe yours, too - and the electricity in the buildings... and I channeled it through me and it all mashed together..." 

"So you heated the water up to make a cloud, and the electricity made lightning," said Taichi. "So basically... I guess you don't have just one ability; you draw on whatever's nearby. It's a good thing we didn't practice indoors! You really might have set something on fire... Can you get rid of that cloud? We can't just leave it here." 

"I think it's kind of pretty," said Hikari dreamily. Still, she closed her eyes, feeling for its power, and made it all drain back to wherever it had come from. She felt it running through her, rocking her with the rhythm of the waves, sparking light lightning, burning like fire, cutting like knives. She felt her knees buckle, and she dropped. Taichi ran to catch her. 

"Are you okay?" he asked. 

"Sure," she said weakly. "I'm just... drained... all of a sudden. Can we go home?" 

"Yeah," he said. "I think we'd better go home." 

~*~

The next day, an e-mail went out to all members of the Chosen Children group to meet up at Koushiro's house. Some, who hadn't yet heard of the outbreak of strangeness, were confused and worried. To Taichi, it was a relief, and he reported to the meeting five minutes early. Once again, he found Koushiro sitting in the middle of his living room, legs crossed, hands resting on his knees, eyes closed. 

"Why do you keep doing that?" he said. "You look weird - like some kind of mountain guru or something." 

"It helps me," said Koushiro, a little vaguely. "With the visions, I mean. For some strange reason, sitting this way helps me focus... and it doesn't hurt as much. I've read somewhere that crossing your arms and legs helps balance your body's electrical fields, so maybe-" 

"I'm sorry I asked," said Taichi. "So, what's the deal? Have you got some answers for us?" 

"Maybe," said Koushiro. He opened his eyes and stood up. "I had a chat with Gennai last night, and we batted around some ideas, but I need to run a test or two. I already tested myself, so I have an educated guess what's happening, but just to be safe, I want to test everyone." 

"Well, what's your educated guess?" 

Koushiro gave him a look of mild irritation. "Can't you wait until everyone else gets here?" 

"I've got a cut on my leg from where I scratched myself before I was really awake this morning. I reduced a pencil to toothpicks during a test. My locker door now has a row of scratches down the front. I cut the handle off of my bicycle on the way over here. I want to know _now_." 

"All right, all right, take it easy," said Koushiro. 

He might have said more, but at that moment, the door opened, and Daisuke and V-mon bounded in. 

"Hi, guys!" he greeted. "Are we having a party, or what?" 

"Not exactly," said Taichi with resignation. He liked Daisuke like a little brother, but there were times when he could be _too_ cheerful. 

"Oh, well," said Daisuke resignedly. "But the others are coming, right? 'Cause I talked to Takeru and he said he got the letter too, and I tried to talk to Ken and Hikari and they said I'd find out when I got here. So why am I here?" 

"You're here to find out why the rest of us are here," said Koushiro. 

"Oh!" He looked at V-mon. "Did that make sense?" 

"Nuh-uh," said V-mon. 

"That's what I thought." 

There was a knock on the door. 

"Come in!" Koushiro shouted. 

Takeru, Hikari, Miyako, Iori and their Digimon arrived, looking apprehensive or curious according to their nature. Taichi was relieved to see that Hikari looked more alert than she had yesterday; maybe she had used up some of whatever had been bothering her with their experiment the night before. Takeru and Iori were both being quiet, but Miyako was in the middle of a complaint. 

"...to _tell_ us about these things," she was saying. It was unclear to whom; nobody really seemed to be listening to her. "I mean, what if I'd been doing something important?" 

"Hey, it's not like you've got a social life or anything," Daisuke teased. 

"Oh, you're here," she said. "How'd you get here so early?" 

He shrugged. "I took the subway. What did you do, walk?" 

"We all decided to come together," said Iori in his usual serious way. "We waited for you a while, but we didn't see you." 

He shrugged. "I figured you'd catch up. So, where's the rest of the gang? Shouldn't they be here by now?" 

"Give them time," said Taichi. "Their schools are further away... I only got here this fast because I skipped out on the last few minutes of class." 

Takeru gave him a hard stare. "What did you do that for?" 

"Hey, you'd have left, too, if you were in my shoes! Or maybe that should be gloves," he added, staring down at his hands. The claws had reappeared again. "I can't control these things! They keep sprouting out while I'm not thinking about them! I had to tell the teacher I was sick." 

"Claws?" Takeru repeated, staring. 

"Yeah," Taichi sighed. 

"I start to see why we had to have a meeting," said Miyako. 

In due time, the others arrived. The only ones who couldn't come were Mimi and Palmon, who were still residing in America - unfortunate, but they would find a way to get the news to her somehow. In the meantime, Koushiro sized up his guests and considered how best to begin his explanations. 

"How much does everybody know about what's going on?" he asked at last. 

"Not much," Yamato admitted. 

"I didn't really feel like talking about it," said Taichi. "It's kind of embarrassing, you know?" 

"I'll say," Jyou muttered. 

"So, what _is_ it?" Miyako demanded. 

"Well..." said Koushiro slowly, "it's... a problem. Or a complication. And I don't think there's any way to get rid of it." 

"I should have known," Jyou moaned. 

Koushiro ignored him. "Come here, and I'll show you what I mean." 

He beckoned for the others to follow him into his room, where his old laptop computer was set up. There was something else hooked up to it, a boxy contraption with a bunch of trailing wires that gave it an improvised look. 

"Sorry for the mess," said Koushiro as he sat down at his desk. "I had to jerry-rig this scanner in a hurry. Even with Gennai's instructions, it still took half the night." 

"What is it?" asked Daisuke, eyeing the contraption dubiously. "Is it going to hurt?" 

"Not much," Koushiro replied. "It's an adaptation of my old Digimon identifier - crude, but effective. I tested it as thoroughly as I could, anyway." 

"Quit beating around the bush," said Taichi. 

"I'm getting there! See, just look. This..." he gestured at the box, as his computer began whirring to life, "...is a kind of cellular analyzer. It checks for the presence of Digital matter in any substance I feed into it. Watch. These are some hairs I swiped from my mom's hairbrush." 

He placed the hairs on his desk and ran the scanner over them. A window on the computer appeared, showing a spinning hourglass for a moment before flashing a message: "Computation complete! 0%." 

"See that? For an ordinary human, it shouldn't register anything," said Koushiro. "Now, this is a bit of the last skin Tentomon shed." 

He scanned the new sample. The computer hummed some more and gave a new reading: 100%. 

"Now for the interesting bit," said Koushiro. "Watch closely." 

Wincing, he pulled a few hairs from his own head and set them under the scanner. The window changed again: 34%. 

"What in the...?" said Takeru, staring. "What's that all about?" 

"That's the answer to our problems," Koushiro answered. "Every one of us have spent long periods of time in a world not our own. Entering the Digital World requires making a fundamental change in our makeup - we have to become digital, if only temporarily. While we're there, we breathe digital air, drink digital water, and eat digital food. It's gotten into our systems. There's a possibility it might eventually wear off, but..." 

"But it's just as likely that it might not," Ken finished. 

"Right," said Koushiro with a resigned sigh. "Since it's never happened before, there really isn't any way to predict it. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that the change seems to be manifesting itself through these strange effects. My guess is that the higher the numbers read, the more powerful and versatile the effects are going to be - they're probably related to how much time you actually spent in the Digital World." 

"Which is why it got me and you and Jyou and Sora first," said Taichi. "I mean, we were living there for weeks, right?" 

"So was I," said Ken quietly. 

"So maybe if I'm lucky, I won't have to put up with all this?" asked Miyako. 

"Aw, I dunno," said Daisuke. "I think it might be kind of fun to have superpowers like that. Kinda like on TV." 

"You already saved the entire known universe - what more do you want?" asked Takeru. 

Daisuke shrugged. "I just don't want to be bored." 

"Well, I can test you if you want to know for sure," said Koushiro with a hint of irritation. "Come here." 

He plucked a few hairs from Daisuke's head, making him yelp. 

"Ow! Man! Can't you just take a fingernail clipping or something?" 

While Daisuke rubbed at his sore scalp, Hikari quietly produced a pair of nail clippers so the rest of the group could take their tests painlessly. The results were less than encouraging - each one of them scored at least 15% percent. Unsurprisingly, the five who had originally had problems scored highly, but the highest number of all went to, of all people, Hikari. 

"That's odd," said Koushiro, frowning. The screen was unhelpfully flashing "62%" at him, and he glared as if he thought it might have been making it all up to annoy him. "Takeru spent twice as much time in the Digital World as she did, and he didn't even score half as high. What makes her so special?" 

"Hikari's like that," said Taichi. "She picks up on things. She always has." 

"Hmm," said Koushiro thoughtfully. "I'm going to have to think about that." 

"Think later," said Daisuke. He had scored fairly low, and could afford to be calm about the whole thing. "It's time to go home now. I think Jyou's hungry." 

"Huh?" said Jyou. "How did you...?" 

He looked up. There was an illusory shrimp dinner hovering peacefully in the air next to him. He glared at it, and it slowly faded away. 

"There," he said. "You see what I have to put up with?" 

"Are we ever going to be able to control this?" asked Sora. "I mean, I don't want to spend the rest of my life worrying I'm going to get angry at someone and shoot a lightning bolt at them." 

Koushiro shook his head helplessly. "It's too early to say. It seems like you can control it with some mental effort, but..." For the first time, he lost his professor-like cool, his voice breaking a bit. "...I can't even figure out how to control my own powers, much less yours." 

A gentle hand rested on his shoulder. Something about the touch seemed to drain the tension out of him, and he looked up to see a pair of soft brown eyes regarding him worriedly. Hikari was bothered seeing friend, who was usually so calm and knowledgeable, apparently teetering on the edge of a breakdown. It would have been against her nature not to try to help. 

"You need to rest, I think," she said. "Didn't you say you were up all night working on that machine? You deserve a nap." 

He offered a grateful smile. "I guess maybe I do. All right, meeting adjourned. I'll work on this some more and try to have some more information - later," he added, intercepting a glare from Hikari. 

The group said subdued goodbyes and filed out of the room, pondering the cards that Fate had dealt them and wondering what would come next, their partners accompanying them in supportive silence. Koushiro watched silently as they walked out - and then doubled over as a fresh wave of pain smote him through the brain, making his vision dance briefly with glimpses of - 

_...the strangest thing. He'd never seen a sample quite like this before, and he'd seen a lot in his medical career. It reminded him vaguely of sickle-cell anemia - the cells were definitely malformed. Perhaps some new strain of cancer? The thought worried him. Maybe he needed to pass this case off to someone better equipped to deal with it..._

Koushiro came out of the vision and shook himself, reflecting wryly that his new abilities had at least one use: now he could know firsthand that he wasn't the only one having a confusing day. 

To be continued... 


	2. Second Manifestation

**

Second Manifestation

**

**

By: SilvorMoon

**

After the meeting at Koushiro's, Yamato walked home at a leisurely pace. Twilight was gathering, and the sky was full of gilt-edged blue clouds that glided smoothly across the sky, nebulous and insubstantial as his thoughts. 

*_So, we're all going to have these strange powers now,_* he mused, trying the thought on for size. He was surprised to find that it wasn't particularly disturbing. It was just another step beyond everything else he'd been asked to do, and while he might not care for the idea, he thought he could learn to deal with it. At least, he hoped he could. He thought again of Jyou's random outbreaks of illusions and Taichi's claws and winced a bit. 

"Are you all right, Yamato?" asked Gabumon. 

"Um... yeah, I think so," the boy replied, pulling his thoughts back down to earth. "Just wondering what's going to happen to me next. It's always something, isn't it?" 

Gabumon nodded. 

"But you never know... it might not be so bad," Yamato continued. "It might be useful to be able to control the weather like Sora or make illusions like Jyou... Taichi's abilities aren't bad, either." 

He thought about that for a while. It seemed to him that there was some logic in the way these abilities were being parceled out. Sora had always been associated with flying, so why shouldn't she control the sky? Taichi had always been the warrior of the group; now he could do that job that much better... 

*_Actually, it was Taichi and I who did a lot of the major fighting. We were the first ones to have our partners evolve. We were the only ones in our group whose partners went to Ultimate. Wouldn't it make sense that my abilities would be similar to his?_* 

He pondered that idea a while. What would his abilities be like? Would he gain enhanced strength and speed like Taichi? Or maybe they would have something to do with his partner's cold fires? No matter what it was, he was sure he'd wind up fighting alongside his friend, just as he always had. That was how his life usually worked, right? 

He stopped walking for a moment, standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his eyes closed, willing his power to show itself. He felt nothing, other than a little silly for just standing there doing nothing. Whatever his power was, it was remaining steadfastly hidden. 

*_Well,_* he told himself, *_it will show itself sooner or later._* 

He started walking home again, trying to take his mind off the subject, because for the first time that evening, he was starting to feel unnerved. 

~*~

Sora sat by her window, watching the clouds. She had always loved watching clouds, especially when she had been very young. Her bed had been placed in just such a way as to facilitate cloud watching, so she could lie there for hours and stare up at the shifting cloud patterns, imagining this one to be a bird and that one a dragon or a cat. Now she watched them and let her mind wander where it would. 

*_It's never going to be quite the same again, is it?_* she mused. *_Not while I know..._* 

Instead of finishing the thought, she turned her attentions to the clouds themselves - not just idly looking at them, but consciously taking in their every detail, every shadow and highlight, every wisp and billow. Instantly, they seemed to fill her vision, blocking out the buildings, streets, and lights, until her whole world was nothing but slowly shifting clouds. 

*_Move,_* she told them. *_Go away._* 

Despite the fact that her body was safely surrounded by the thick walls of a building, her mind felt a wind start to blow, and the clouds that had been drifting in began rolling back out to sea, revealing a sky full of stars and an elliptical moon. 

*_Come back..._* 

The wind died, then shifted. The clouds rolled back in. For a moment, Sora felt their cool softness wrapping around her, gentle and comforting. Then her mind snapped back into her body, and all she felt was a stiffness in her legs from sitting too long in an uncomfortable position. Outside, she could still see the results of her work: a sky that was completely filled with clouds, so that not even the strong light of the moon filtered through them. Suddenly, the thought of being able to blot out the stars made her feel cold all over. 

*_Why is this happening to me?_* she thought. *_I never asked for this kind of power... Isn't saving two worlds twice over enough? At least I was given those powers for a reason. This is just a stupid accident that I can do this. There's no point to it..._* 

She suddenly felt in desperate need to talk to someone. Not to Piyomon - she would listen, as she always did, but she was just as scared and confused by all this as Sora was, if not more so. No, what Sora really needed was someone calm and knowledgeable who wouldn't be unnerved by strange goings-on. 

Sora got up and reached for her telephone. 

"Who are you calling?" Piyomon asked. 

"Someone I hope can help me deal with all this," Sora replied. Her fingers were dialing the number of their own accord, as if they had just been waiting for her brain to realize what they were supposed to be doing. Within seconds, she heard the sound of a phone being lifted and a familiar voice on the other end. 

"Hello?" 

"Hi, Dad. It's me again." 

"Sora! It's not like you to call so late. Is something wrong?" 

Sora hesitated. Then, slowly, she said, "You might say that..." 

She began explaining the events of her day as best she could. The only thing she left out was the possibility that the outbreak of these strange new abilities had probably been triggered by her disappointment that her father wasn't coming home to see her. She wasn't sure why; partly it just made her feel guilty to think of trying to lay any of the blame for this on him. For now, she simply wanted it to sound as if this was a random happening. When she was done, she waited anxiously for his response. He hadn't said a word while she was telling her story, and now that she was done, he remained silent. She knew what that meant. It meant he thought this was too serious for a playful remark; he was thinking hard about it before he said anything, so she waited. When she got her response, though, she was the one who was shocked into silence. 

"I'm coming home," he said. 

Sora was stunned. 

"Did you hear me?" he asked. "Hello? Are you still there?" 

"Do you mean it?" asked Sora. "I thought you said you had to go to the conference... You said you couldn't miss it..." 

"It's more important that I be there when you need me. It sounds like you need me there now," her father replied. "Give me a little time to get packed. I'll be there tomorrow morning." 

"Thanks, Dad," she said. "This means a lot to me." 

"Get some sleep," her father told her. "It's late, and you've had a long day, it sounds like. No matter what kind of situation you're in right now, I'd imagine a good night's rest would do you some good." 

"Don't worry, Dad, I will," she told him. "See you tomorrow... and thanks again." 

"Good night, Sora. Pleasant dreams." 

Sora hung up the phone with a smile on her face. She sank back onto her bed with a sigh. 

"What did he say?" Piyomon chirped. "Something good, right?" 

"He's coming home," said Sora. "Dad's coming home, after all!" 

"That's great!" said Piyomon happily. "He'll be able to help, right?" 

"I hope so," Sora replied. "But even if he can't, just having him here will make me feel a lot better..." 

For the first time that day, she broke into a real smile. High overhead, the clouds silently broke up and disappeared. 

~*~

Appropriately, the next day dawned clear and bright, without a cloud in the sky, and a brisk breeze blowing. To Daisuke, it seemed that the world was trying to communicate a message to him: go outside and play soccer. Who was he to turn down a message like that? After all, it was Saturday, and he had nowhere else he needed to be, so... 

"Mom, Dad, I'm going to the park!" he shouted. "I'll be back for lunch, okay?" 

"All right," said his mother's voice vaguely. It sounded as if she was occupied with something else. As Daisuke headed for the front door, he noticed her mopping the kitchen floor and pretending not to be interested in the cartoons Jun was watching. Daisuke shook his head. TV was fine in its place, but anybody who could stand sitting at home doing nothing on a beautiful day like this had to be half brain-dead. 

*_Which explains my sister. Nice girl, not heavy on brain cells. You'd never know we were related, sometimes._* 

He headed out the door and made tracks toward the park. All around him, other people were walking to their own chosen destinations. Not Daisuke, though. He ran. He loved the feel of the wind in his hair, of cutting through the air around him, dodging around all the dull slow-moving people around him, feeling completely free and unrestrained. He even had enough breath to laugh as he cut through a group of surprised-looking businessmen on their way to an early lunch. Nearing the park, he leaned into his run and began moving full-throttle, trying to see how fast he could go. 

*_Not bad,_* he thought, slowing to a walk so he could catch his breath. *_If I wasn't already on the soccer team, I might join the track team._* 

He walked slowly through the park, searching for others like himself who needed something to do on a day like this. Luck was with him; a group of his acquaintances from school had already started a casual game. 

"Hey, guys!" he called. "Room for one more?" 

"We need another player on this side," one of the guys called back. 

"No fair!" said a pigtailed girl. "He's better than us!" 

"You're just saying that 'cause you're winning," the first boy shot back. 

Daisuke joined the boy's team, and they huddled together for a brief discussion of tactics. The other team already had a substantial lead, and by this point, they were willing to take on _anyone_ who had a chance of helping them pull ahead. When they were ready, they broke up and continued the game. 

Right away, Daisuke knew one thing: the girl who had complained really hadn't been being fair. She was as good as anyone on his school soccer team, and quite possibly better than some of them; he wondered why she wasn't on the team herself. It wasn't quite like playing against Ken again, but she was still quite good enough to give Daisuke a run for his money. Despite his best efforts, his ragtag team was only holding their own. If they were going to start gaining any ground, something was going to have to give. He cringed as one of his players kicked the ball toward the opposing team's goal, only to have it intercepted and driven the other way. Daisuke began running to try to stop them, but he was on the wrong side of the field. He would never get there in time... 

*_Man, if I could just move a little faster..._* 

There was a blur. Daisuke felt the world lurch around him, as if gravity had just turned itself sideways. The next thing he knew, he was standing on the other side of the field. The next thing to hit him after that was a soccer ball, which soared through the air and bonked him on the head. It bounced off and rolled away, while Daisuke watched it blankly and thought, *_How did that get there?_* Then he looked up and saw everyone staring at him. 

"Ummm..." he said. "I gotta go now. Bye!" 

And for the first time in his life, he turned around and ran from a soccer game as fast as his feet could carry him... and hoping as hard as he could that it would be _only_ his feet doing the carrying. 

~*~

Iori walked. He was not the kind to hurry, not unless there was some life-threatening emergency afoot. Right now, he was simply out running an errand, and that was reason enough to be quick, but not to rush. His mother had sent him up the street and around the corner to pick up a jug of milk and some bread, just enough to last until she had time to do the rest of the shopping. That was fine with Iori. He often worried about his mother, having to take care of nearly everything on her own, and he felt sometimes in a dim way that he ought to be doing what he could to take care of her, rather than the other way around. 

Stopping by a lamp post, he set down his burdens for a moment to collect himself. He'd had enough kendo training that he was strong for his age, but a gallon of milk was a large and awkward thing for a boy to have to manage with one hand, and he was already getting tired of carrying it, even though he'd only gone half a block so far. He could actually see his apartment building from here, but the way to it looked interminable. He sighed. 

*_Too bad my Digimon is still usually a Baby II stage in the Real World,_* he thought. If Armadimon had been there, he could have carried the groceries himself, and possibly Iori as well, but Upamon could barely have made the walk without being carried - it was tough work getting around without legs, and baby Digimon tired quickly. Knowing he'd need both hands to manage the groceries, Iori had been forced to leave his partner behind. 

*_Maybe we'll do something fun together later,_* he thought, as he bent to pick up the jug again. *_I wonder if it would be safe to visit the Digital World for a while?_* 

The idea appealed to him, at least in part. Now that the Digital World was supposed to be free of anything particularly dangerous, he and his friends had made several trips there just for their own enjoyment. Iori in particular felt he had a certain responsibility to explore there, for the sake of those who hadn't had a chance. However, considering the current situation, he wasn't sure that would be completely wise. Going to the Digital World for extended periods of time was what had gotten the group into their latest mess; continuing to go there would probably aggravate the problem. Still, they were Chosen Children, and it seemed wrong that they should have to give up on ever going back... 

"Hey, I know who you are," drawled a voice. 

Iori looked up. There was a boy watching him from a few yards away. He appeared to be a year or two older than Iori himself, and was wearing a sneering expression. Iori regarded him warily. 

"Yeah, I know you," said the strange boy. "You're one of those Digimon kids. I saw you on TV." 

"That's right," said Iori carefully. "Is there something I can do for you?" 

"Listen, I don't need help from no Digimon alien kid," the other boy said. "Bet you think you're really special... Getting to be on TV and in all the papers..." 

Iori suddenly realized what he was looking at: a case of juvenile jealousy. Good sense told him to ignore this character and walk on. Another part of him wanted to tell this boy what it was _really_ like being a hero, and that it definitely wasn't all about getting his face on TV. He gritted his teeth, shifted his grip on his groceries, and started heading for his apartment again. 

"Yeah, that's right, ignore me," the boy jibed. "Think you're too good for me, don't ya?" 

*_Don't listen to him,_* Iori told himself. *_Just ignore him. Just walk on by..._* 

"I don't know why people act like you bunch are so special, anyway," the boy went on, trotting along beside him. "All you ever did is run around and play in some other dimension with a bunch of goofy monsters, and people act like you're so special. I bet you all just made up half that stuff you did. I bet you never did anything." 

"If that's what makes you happy, go ahead and think that," said Iori primly. 

"Ooh, listen to him," said the boy. "Boy, you _really_ sound scary. I bet you never did anything at all, did you? A little kid like you couldn't do anything." 

"I would have liked to see you do better," Iori replied, a bit more sharply than he'd intended. 

"I could do better than any little kid could do," the boy said. "I bet I'd have done a whole lot better than you. I bet by now, I'd be running that place." 

"It's been tried," said Iori, "by people a lot smarter than you. It didn't work. Look, I have things today. I don't have time to talk to you right now." 

"Listen to this guy. You're giving me the brush-off? I knew it," the boy muttered. "You do think you're better than me, don't you? You think you're just so special. Just 'cause you're a big hero, everybody thinks you're so cool, just because you hang out with a bunch of ugly monsters..." 

"You think I think I'm better than you?" asked Iori slowly. "Well, let me tell you something. Let me tell you what it's like being a _big hero_. Do you know what it's like? I've been beaten and blasted and locked up and trapped underwater and tossed into other dimensions. I've had to deal with monsters and ghosts and things you can't even imagine. I've had to spend every day worrying that my friends and my family were in danger and it was up to me whether they'd live or die. I've _seen_ people die - people I care about - die right in front of me and I couldn't do anything to help them. That's what it's like being a _hero_, and until you've done all that, you don't have any right to tell me what's wrong with me." 

For a moment, the boy looked nonplussed. Then he regained his sneer. 

"Seen people die, huh?" he said. "And you couldn't help them? What a wimp. I knew you couldn't be so special. No wonder they died, with just a stupid little kid to protect them..." 

Iori just stared at him. Outrage was slowly building in him like a crashing tide. People had given their lives to keep the world safe - they had died so this boy and a million other people like him could go on living their safe little lives, and he had the nerve to sneer about it! He was just standing there acting like their sacrifices meant nothing... Vividly, as if it were happening right there in front of him, Iori could see them all... He could hear Ken's wail of anguish as Wormmon faded away... He could see BlackWarGreymon as he died... He could feel Oikawa's passing even as Iori tried to hold him back... 

"No," he whispered. "How dare you? How dare you say things like that? How dare you!" 

Without thinking, he dropped everything he was carrying and swung at the sneering boy, even though he was out of arm's reach. Much to his amazement, a streak of blood appeared across the boy's arm, and both of them stared in amazement. 

"What the hell?" the boy swore. 

Iori looked down at his hands. He was holding a sword in his hands, slim and light, just the right weight and length for him to manage comfortably, with a gleaming razor sharp edge. It was made of some kind of dark metal, nearly black, except for a smear of red at the tip. Iori stared at it, and then up at the boy. 

"I didn't mean..." he began. 

"Get away from me," said the boy, and he turned and ran as if demons pursued him. Iori just stared. 

*_I just attacked someone,_* he thought weakly. Then, *_I could have killed him._* 

A violent shudder ran through him. He threw down the sword, and it vanished before it hit the ground. Without looking back, Iori grabbed his things and fled for home, trying to escape the fact that just for an instant, he really had wanted to kill a human being. 

~*~

It seemed rather odd to Hikari that she seemed to be the only human being in the house who wasn't in a bad mood. At the moment, her mother was in a bad mood because the dishwasher was broken, and she couldn't find anyone who was willing to come out on a Saturday to fix it. Taichi was in a bad mood because of his claws, which were continuing to be an annoyance. He had yet to learn to control them for any length of time, and they kept popping out at odd moments, obliging him to be very careful with what he did with his hands. He had spent most of the morning hiding in his room. Hikari knocked on his door. 

"I'm going for a walk," she told him. "Do you want to come?" 

"I can't go anywhere looking like this," he snapped back. "I look like Freddie Krueger or something!" 

"You can't stay in your room for the rest of your life, Taichi," said Hikari. 

"Well, I'm not coming out today," he said grumpily. 

Hikari was not bothered by his surliness. It was obvious to his sister what the source of his annoyance was: he really _did_ want to go outside, and the fact that he couldn't without tempting trouble was grating on him. Few things annoyed him half so much as having to stay in when he wanted to go out! 

"You shouldn't go out, either," he said. "What if you have a breakout? People will definitely notice if you start shooting off sparks or something downtown." 

"I haven't been shooting off sparks," she said calmly. "I haven't been doing anything at all. I don't think anything strange is going to happen." 

"Well, you should still be careful," he said sulkily. 

"I'll be careful," she said. "I'm just not going to lock myself in all day because of something that might or might not happen." 

"Well... it's your problem." 

"You _could_ go out, you know. Just keep your hands in your pockets." 

"And slice my leg off by accident? No thanks! I'm going to stay in and practice keeping these claws out of sight where they belong." 

"Suit yourself! I'm leaving. Want me to pick you up anything?" 

"Nah, I'm okay, I guess. Have fun. Enjoy your walk." 

"Thanks, Taichi. Bye!" 

She collected Tailmon and left the apartment. It was nice to be out in the fresh air, feeling the warmth of the sunshine and the pleasant breeze... 

*_Careful; don't think too hard about that,_* she told herself. She had felt her mind slipping back into the same trance she'd been in two days ago, when she had made it rain by the ocean. What was she likely to do if she thought too hard about sunlight? Would she start to glow, or just heat up everything around her? What would thinking about the wind do? There really wasn't much way for her to predict exactly what she was going to do next. She was really going to have to practice being more careful! 

*_Well, so far, so good_* she reminded herself. She seemed to be the only one who had her abilities more-or-less under control; surely that bode well for her. As long as she was careful, she didn't think there was anything she needed to be worried about. 

"What do you think of all this, Tailmon?" she asked. "Are we getting worked up over nothing? I mean, I know it can't be much fun to be sprouting claws or turning invisible, but I can't believe it's really that big of an emergency." 

Tailmon gave the question her due consideration before answering, "I don't think it's anything to worry about yet... but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful. You got enough publicity after we defeated BelialVamdemon. I'd hate to think what would happen if they started finding out about all this. What if they tried to take you to a lab and do experiments on you?" 

"I don't think that's legal," said Hikari musingly. "I'm not sure, though. Anyway, they'd have a hard time getting us to go along with it. I think most of us would rather spend the rest of our lives camping out in the Digital World before we'd let anybody drag us off to do experiments on us." 

"True... but you never can be too careful." 

They walked aimlessly for a while, peering into shop windows, greeting friends and acquaintances as they passed. After a few minutes of this, however, Hikari began to grow vaguely bored. She wanted to be doing something, or to at least have a direction. Was there somewhere she'd particularly like to be? She considered going to the mall, just because that was where teenaged girls were supposed to go to amuse themselves, and rejected the idea. Malls were too crowded and superficial for her taste. She thought about going to the park, but eventually decided against that, also. On a Saturday, it would be crawling with noisy students of all ages, playing games and causing commotions. She thought the most people around her she could stand (besides Tailmon, of course) was one or maybe two people, at most. Not just any person, but a close friend she could talk to. 

She was halfway ready to turn her footsteps in the direction of the Ai Mart to see if Miyako was willing to have a talk, when it occurred to her out of the blue to wonder what Koushiro was doing. Normally she didn't spend that much time with him, but he was still her friend, and he was the one who was supposed to be researching this strange new phenomenon. On top of that, he hadn't been looking well the last time she'd seen him, and she was mildly concerned that he might be working too hard and worrying too much. It would make her feel better to visit him and see how he was doing. 

"Want to go visit Koushiro?" she asked. 

Tailmon gave her a curious look, as if she was not quite able to comprehend what had prompted that question, but she shrugged and said, "Fine with me." 

A short subway ride later, they arrived at Koushiro's apartment building. Hikari made her way to her friend's door and knocked. There was no answer. She knocked again, more loudly this time, and called out, but she received no answer. She was almost ready to decide that the family had gone somewhere, when the door was opened, by, of all people, Tentomon. 

"Do you know how hard it is to manage doorknobs with these?" he asked, waving his insect pods in irritation. "I asked them to put in lever handles, but nobody listens to me." 

"Hello to you, too," said Hikari. "Where is Koushiro?" 

"Um, well... he's not doing so good," said Tentomon, sounding worried. "Maybe you can buck him up a little." 

He moved aside so his guests could enter. As Hikari and her partner walked into the apartment, they heard a sleepy-sounding voice say, "Who's there?" 

"Just us," Hikari called back. 

"Oh, hello, Hikari. Just a minute." 

Koushiro appeared, running a comb through his hair, which was showing some signs of neglect. He was wearing casual clothes instead of his usual neat school uniform, and the contrast between what she was used to seeing and the faded jeans and T-shirt he was wearing made him look twice as exhausted as he'd been yesterday. He was smiling warmly in greeting, but his eyes looked red, and there were faint but unmistakable shadows beneath them. 

"Sorry I don't look more presentable. I wasn't expecting company today," he said. "What brings you here. Nothing wrong, I hope?" 

"I was going to ask you the same question," Hikari replied. "Are you okay? You look... really tired. I thought I told you to get some sleep," she added, trying to make it sound light and teasing. She wasn't sure she managed. The worn expression on his face was bothering her; it made him look ten years older than he really was. 

Koushiro smiled wryly. "I did. It didn't do me much good, though. The good news is, I think I'm starting to make some headway in getting these visions under control. The bad news is, they seem to be coming in a lot more often... especially when I'm trying to sleep and my mind is relaxed. It's not very conductive to resting." 

"You've got to do something," said Hikari. "If things keep up like this, you're going to get sick." 

"I'll be okay. I just need more practice," he said reassuringly. 

He looked like he was going to say something else, but instead he cringed and doubled over, clutching his head. Hikari cried out in alarm, but the spasm passed as swiftly as it had come on. 

"Koushiro! What happened?" she asked. 

"Nothing, nothing," he said, waving a hand vaguely. He was breathing rather quickly, and his face looked pale. "It's just... these visions. They hurt. Oh, and by the way... if you're interested, there's a shop downtown that just put all its sweaters on sale for half-price." 

He looked up at her and tried to smile. She did not feel particularly reassured. 

"I'm worried about you," she said. "This thing is harder on you than all the rest of us combined, I'm starting to think." 

"I'm getting it under control," he said. "I _will_ get it under control. I just need some time. You'll see." 

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked. 

"Well... Hmm. Maybe." 

"What?" 

"Well, judging by what Taichi told me earlier, your talent seems to be linked with drawing out the power of things surrounding you and utilizing it," he said. "I noticed yesterday when you touched my shoulder, I suddenly felt a lot better. If my system isn't up to dealing with the shock of these visions, it could very well be that you could help a lot by acting as a - a kind of buffer. I suppose we'd have to do some experimenting to be sure, though..." 

"If I can do something to help, I will," she said. "Just tell me what to do." 

"Well, just... do what you did yesterday, and we'll see what happens." 

"Oh. All right." 

Rather gingerly, she reached out a hand and rested it on his shoulder. When nothing bad happened, she set the other hand on his other shoulder. For a moment, nothing happened except her thinking how silly they must look, standing there like that. Then a wave of tiredness washed over her, and at the same time, she heard Koushiro sigh with relief. 

"Yes, that's lots better," he said. 

"I felt it happening this time," she said. "You really _were_ tired, weren't you?" 

"Exhausted," he replied. "Most of that's gone now, though. Thanks a lot, Hikari." 

She smiled and didn't bother to reply. She could definitely feel how tired he had been - it seemed her ability stretched to sharing power as well as drawing it in. Despite how tired she felt, it was nice to know she'd done something useful. 

She was distracted by the sudden ominous sensation that something was about to happen. Without thinking, she gripped the force that was rushing towards her, and... 

_...think we ought to run some more tests. Frankly, this has me more than a little worried. I've never seen a disease like this before, and after everything else the boy has been through..._

Hikari shook herself. If this was the kind of think Koushiro was having to put up with on a regular basis, it was no wonder he was feeling down! It was a very strange thing, to suddenly be in someone else's mind... 

"Did you see that?" asked Koushiro. 

"I don't know how, but I did," Hikari replied. 

"It didn't hurt this time," he said. "This experiment is really paying off. Hm." 

"If it didn't hurt you this time, then why are you frowning?" 

"I'm frowning because something else is bothering me. I had a vision of the same man yesterday evening - the same doctor worrying about the same problem case. I think it very odd that of all the people in the world who could randomly pop into my mind, seeing the same person twice in the span of two days has to be something more than a coincidence. And there's something else that seems wrong, but I can't put my finger on it..." 

Hikari frowned. "You're right. I feel the same way. Like there's something important I just missed..." 

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," said Koushiro. "This experiment has really paid off. I'm going to have to start hanging out with you more often!" 

Hikari smiled, pleased. "Any time." 

There was a moment of silence. Neither one of them seemed to know quite what to say next. They were saved from having to say anything by the fact that the phone suddenly started to ring. 

"I'll get it!" said Tentomon. He buzzed over and caught the receiver. "Hello? It's who? Never heard of him... Oh, yes, he's here. Just a minute." Tentomon proffered the phone to Koushiro. "It's Jyou... I think." 

"You think?" Koushiro repeated. He took the phone. "Hello?" 

"Oh, thank goodness," said Jyou's voice, sounding extremely harassed. "I've got a problem over here." 

"You sure do," said a voice in the background. "Actually, you've got more problems than I can count, but I'm a nice guy, so I'm not going to get into that." 

"Sorry, Jyou, but I can't help you with your personal problems," said Koushiro. 

"This isn't a personal problem!" said Jyou. "I mean it is, but it's... Well, you've got to see it for yourself." 

"Don't worry about him," said the other voice. "He just wants someone else to deal with his problems. Either that, or he's just so pathetic he'll use _any_ excuse to get people to associate with him." 

"I don't quite follow," said Koushiro. "Who _is_ that over there, anyway?" 

"It's _me_," said Jyou. "Just me and myself." 

"I'm the new and improved model!" the other voice chimed in. 

"This I've got to see," said Koushiro. "Hang on. I'm on my way." 

He hung up the phone without a goodbye. He turned to Hikari with puzzled exasperation written all over his face. 

"Why is it always me?" he asked. 

"Because you know things," she told him. 

He laughed. "Maybe whoever said ignorance is bliss had it right. I'm going to Jyou's place. Do you want to come? Judging by what I heard, it might just be interesting." 

"I guess I'll tag along. I did want something to do today," she said. 

"Great. If this situation is as weird as it sounds, I might just need all the help I can get." He sighed. "Something tells me I'm going to get really tired of being in charge of this endeavor." 

"At least you don't have to do it all alone," said Hikari. 

He smiled a little. "You're right, that's a good thing. Thanks. You always know the right thing to say." 

He headed for the door, beckoning for Hikari and the Digimon to follow. Hikari trailed behind, smiling and feeling glad that she had decided to visit Koushiro today. 

~*~

Takeru was in no mood to think about anything serious. Perhaps it was wrong of him, but he just didn't want to think too hard about the fact that at any moment, for any reason, he might find himself spontaneously manifesting some kind of strange powers. As a general rule, he didn't like major upheavals in his life. The first time he'd experienced a change like that, it had been when his parents had split up, which had definitely not counted as a pleasant experience, and had given him a certain amount of distrust of changes. The second major change had been discovering the Digital World and becoming a Chosen Child, which had been better... but by no means perfect. It had given him the best friends in the world, brought him closer to his brother than he'd ever been, given him a partner he loved more than anything... one he still saw dying in his nightmares. In the Digital World, he'd seen death for the first time, and come to know, not just the usual scraped knees and closet-monsters of childhood, but real pain and fear. The world had changed him - in most ways, he hoped, for the better, but there were still things he wished he hadn't had to live through. 

And now there was this newest surprise it had brought him. Would it turn out to be another good thing, or would it be another nasty shock? Judging by what some of the others were going through, he didn't feel safe in believing that this would be a good thing, and so he did the only thing he could possibly do in a situation like this: he ignored it. There was nothing he could do about it, and no way he could accurately guess what was coming, so instead, he simply tried to distract himself so he wouldn't think about it. 

In this case, the distraction he was using was homework. Under ordinary circumstances, this wouldn't have been his choice of a weekend diversion, but it had to get done sometime, and it did give him something to think about. With a sigh, he pulled out the worksheet he'd been given, opened his book, and began flipping through it in search of anything that would help him fill out these long-answer questions. Boring as it was, the simple ritual of homework made him feel a bit better. He could imagine what would happen if he should, for example, suddenly sprout wings in a crowded subway station. It was harder to imagine that he might do something bizarre or dangerous while answering questions about erosion and the greenhouse effect. It was very peaceful and mundane, sitting there doing worksheets, listening to Patamon playing with a toy from this morning's cereal box. 

Takeru flipped through his book, found the passage he was looking for, and reached for his pencil so he could write down an explanation of how acid rain worked. However, he never got as far as the first word, because as he reached for his pencil, it disappeared. 

Takeru blinked. He couldn't even manage to be startled, because his brain was having trouble completely accepting that a physical object could simply cease to be all on its own. Had it gone invisible, like Jyou had? No, he had felt the pencil touching his fingers, and then suddenly it hadn't been anymore. He supposed he might have dropped it. He looked around on the desk, bemusedly lifting papers - and then his homework disappeared. Takeru gawped. 

"Did you see that?" he asked Patamon. 

"See what?" Patamon replied, looking up from his new toy. 

"My homework disappeared!" he said. "It evaporated, or something." 

Patamon shook his head. "Your teacher is never going to believe that." 

"I don't believe it either, but it's true," said Takeru. "I just touched it, and then - it was like there was this light or something, just for a split second, and then it wasn't there anymore. Watch." 

Takeru reached for a rubber eraser that was sitting on his desk - one of the cheap rubber ones teachers gave out as prizes to good students, the kind that came in all kinds of bright colors and silly shapes and never seemed to really be able to erase anything. The second his fingers touched it, there was a tiny flare of light, and the eraser seemed to turn into pale steam and fade away. Patamon's eyes widened. 

"That was cool!" said Patamon. "Do it again!" 

Patamon took to the air and flapped closer to Takeru. Takeru backed away, suddenly struck by an awful idea. 

"Stay back!" he said. He raised his hands to fend Patamon off, realized that was probably the worst thing he could do, and lowered them again quickly. Patamon backed away, looking puzzled. 

"What's wrong?" Patamon asked. 

"Don't you see?" asked Takeru. "If me touching something makes it disappear, if I touch you, _you_ could disappear!" 

Takeru let that thought sink in. Patamon... disappear. What if it had really happened? What if his powers had manifested as he slept, and awakened to discover he couldn't find Patamon because there was no longer any Patamon to find? What if he had deleted his best friend without ever knowing what he was doing? Or even worse, what if he'd done it while he was awake? What if he'd been holding Patamon just like he always did, and Patamon suddenly disappeared, leaving him to slowly realize what he'd done... The thought was too horrible to consider and he shook it off with a shudder. 

*_You can what-if yourself to death... that's what Dad always says, anyway. I was lucky this time, and nothing bad happened. Now I just need to figure out something productive to do about it._* 

Well, what could he do? This wasn't the kind of thing it was safe to ignore, after all. His first impulse was to try to talk to Koushiro, who had that comforting way of seeming to know everything about everything.... On the other hand, now that he thought of it, Koushiro hadn't been looking too well the last time Takeru had seen him. Perhaps it wasn't best to burden him with any _more_ problems. 

On the other hand, there were a few members of the team left who hadn't had anything unfortunate happen to them yet. For example, Yamato had shown no signs of manifesting interesting powers. He had nothing specific to worry about right now, and he was always willing to listen to his little brother when Takeru needed him. If there was ever a moment when Takeru needed a big brother's support, now would be the time. 

"I want to tell Yamato about this," he said aloud. 

"What can he do about it?" asked Patamon, looking politely puzzled. 

Takeru shook his head. "Nothing I doubt anyone can. But I want to tell him anyway." 

He made a move to reach for Patamon, to place him on his head where he usually rode, but he pulled back as he saw Patamon quail away from him. Takeru let his hands fall to his sides as Patamon fluttered into the air to follow at a careful distance. With a sigh, Takeru headed for the door, wondering if he'd ever seen Patamon cringe from him before. 

~*~

Rather hesitantly, reflecting the fact that he had no idea what he was getting into, Koushiro knocked on the door to Jyou's apartment. 

"Come on in! The door's not locked," said a cheery voice. 

"Yeah, come in," added Jyou in a gloomy tone. "Nobody's here but me... well, us." 

Not entirely reassured, Koushiro and Hikari exchanged confused glances. No explanations seemed forthcoming, though, so they hesitantly pushed the door open and peered inside. Tentomon buzzed into the room and ran reconnaissance. 

"I don't _see_ any problems," he said. 

"Well, Jyou called us here for something," said Hikari, stepping into the room. 

The first thing she saw was Jyou, stretched comfortably on the sofa. He was looking very unusual - instead of his usual buttoned-down appearance, he was wearing a pair of faded jeans, a loud Hawaiian shirt, a pair of sunglasses, and his long hair was pulled in a ponytail. He grinned and waved as she came in. When he spoke, Hikari, jumped - the voice was not Jyou's. 

"Hiya, babe," he said casually. "Wanna come over here and join me? Plenty of room for two, you know." He grinned slyly and peered at her over the rims of his sunglasses. Hikari felt herself blushing. She'd been looked at that way by some of the ruder boys at school, but the expression did not belong on Jyou's face. 

"Don't talk that way to guests," said Jyou's voice, and he walked into the room. "It's rude." 

Koushiro stared. There was a Jyou in the doorway, and a Jyou on the sofa. Their voices, manners, and dress might be different, but in looks, they were identical down to the last hair. 

"Why do I care what's rude?" asked the Jyou on the sofa. "It's fun! You ought to try it sometime." 

"Um, excuse me," said Hikari hesitantly, "but which of you is the real Jyou?" 

"I am!" they said in unison. 

"Don't listen to him," said the Jyou in the doorway - the one who looked the most like Jyou. "He's a terrible liar." 

"I'm not a liar. You're a hypocrite," said the other Jyou. 

"Yeah, but at least I'm not an illusion!" 

"I think I'm starting to figure this out," said Koushiro slowly. "This..." He waved his hand at the Jyou on the sofa, "is just one of your projections, right?" 

"Hey, buddy, I'm a hell of a lot more than that!" said the illusion. 

"Watch your language," Jyou told it. 

"To quote Shakespeare... I don't wanna, I don't hafta, and I ain't gonna!" 

Jyou rolled his eyes. "Do you see what I have to put up with?" 

"Can't you make him go away?" asked Hikari. She reached out a hand to prod the illusion- Jyou. Naturally, her fingers went right through him. 

"Hey, babycakes, you keep your paws to yourself," he said. He leered again. "Unless, of course, you can't help yourself." 

"In your dreams!" she snapped at him. 

"I can't make him go away," said Jyou. "I keep trying, but he just keeps coming back, and he gets more aggravating every time!" 

"Well, naturally," said Koushiro. "If he is what I think he is, he'll naturally be next to impossible to control. He speaks with your voice, doesn't he?" 

"Huh?" said Jyou. 

"I mean, his voice sounds to you exactly the way your own voice sounds to you," said Izzy. "The way your voice sounds inside your head." 

"Well, of course it does," said Jyou, looking slightly taken aback. 

"But it doesn't," said Gatomon, who was beginning to look completely confused as well. "His-" she pointed at the illusion. "-voice is a lot deeper." 

"That's right," said Koushiro factually, "because that's how Jyou's voice sounds to Jyou. Haven't you ever listened to a recording of your own voice, and thought it didn't quite sound like you? This illusion is speaking with Jyou's own inner voice - like his thoughts." 

"You aren't making a whole lot of sense yet," said Jyou. "I'm hoping you're planning to one day, right?" 

"Maybe I'm just too big a concept for you to handle," said the illusion. 

Koushiro ignored him and went on talking. "Judging by what little evidence I have, I'd have to surmise that this particular illusion is a manifestation of some level of your subconscious." He glared at the illusion and added, "Perhaps an extremely _annoying_ level of your subconscious, but..." 

"So what does that mean in practical terms?" asked Jyou. 

"It means that he probably represents something in your subconscious you haven't dealt with yet," said Koushiro, "and until you do, he's probably not going to go away." 

"You mean I'm stuck with him _forever_?" asked Jyou, incredulous. 

"No, not forever," Koushiro answered mildly. "Just until you deal with whatever caused him... Then again, these manifestations seem to come and go in cycles, so the odds are he'll fade out on his own eventually." 

"I don't want to fade out!" said the illusion indignantly. "Jyou never lets me play outside. It's about time I got a say in how things get run around here!" 

"Go away," Jyou told him. 

"Can't make me!" 

"On the other hand," said Koushiro, "odds are, once your powers flare up again, he'll probably come back. So all I can say is, you're going to have to learn how to deal with him." 

"I was afraid you'd say that," said Jyou with a sigh. 

Koushiro shrugged. "Sorry. Not much I can do about your subconscious mind. I'm a computer guru, not a psychiatrist." 

"Are you going to name him?" asked Hikari. Everyone looked at her. 

"Why would I want to name an illusion?" Jyou asked. 

"Well, if he's going to be around for a while, you might as well name him," said Hikari. "I mean, he might be an illusion, but he has a personality." 

"Yeah, that's right! You tell 'im, babe!" said the illusion. 

"Well..." said Jyou. 

"Let's call him Mike!" said a voice. 

Everyone looked down. They had overlooked Gomamon, who had just appeared from around the corner and was watching the exchange with interest. 

"Why should we call him Mike?" asked Tentomon. "Did you just pick that name at random, or was there some reason for it?" 

"It's short for My Consciousness," said Gomamon. "MyC. Mike." He looked around for appreciation of his cleverness. 

Jyou sighed. "Well, I guess if you want to call him Mike, that's fine with me. I guess it's as good a name as any other." 

"Well, glad to be of help, then," said Koushiro. "Sorry we couldn't do more, but..." 

"I know, it's my problem and I've got to deal with it," said Jyou. He glared at the newly-named Mike. "Hopefully this guy will go away soon." 

"I'll never go away," said Mike, grinning broadly. "I'm you. And best of all, you know it, too, don't you?" 

"This is getting too weird," said Hikari. "Can we go now?" 

"I guess we should," Koushiro replied. "Bye, Jyou. Bye, Gomamon. Bye, Mike." 

"So long, egghead! See ya 'round, babycakes! Come back soon, okay, doll?" 

Hikari ignored these parting words and shut the door firmly behind her. Mike turned to Jyou with a grin. 

"You know," he said, "now that you've given me a name and a personality, you're never going to get rid of me." 

Jyou sighed. "I was afraid of that." 

~*~

Yamato's room wasn't an impressive one, not what one would expect for an internationally known hero and local rock star. It was seldom completely clean, with the usual scattering of dirty clothes tossed over the backs of furniture or shoved under the bed, and with an assortment of odd litter cluttering the floor. The brightest spots in the room were a few colorful posters of assorted bands Yamato liked, his highly polished bass guitar, and a bamboo plant in a pot. It sat on his windowsill, its natural cleanliness looking rather incongruous in the untidy room. It had been a gift from his mother, a good-luck token for his high-school entrance exams, and he'd been dutifully keeping it alive ever since. 

"Haven't you managed to kill that thing yet?" Takeru joked, nodding at the plant as he entered his brother's room. 

"Not yet, but I'm working on it," said Yamato, smiling a bit at the old joke. When he'd first been given the plant, he'd objected that he'd never been able to keep any growing thing alive for any length of time, and yet the bamboo plant had proven remarkably resilient to dying. "So, what brings you all the way out here?" 

"I just needed someone to talk to," Takeru answered. He sank - carefully - into a chair. His nerves were somewhat frazzled. He'd had to take the bus to Yamato's place, and he'd spent most of the ride worrying that he'd find himself explaining why the bus had suddenly disappeared, or that someone would brush against him and accidentally lose a hand. 

Yamato's blue eyes seemed to darken with concern. "Something wrong?" 

"Well... you know those weird powers Koushiro told us we'd be getting? Well, mine just showed up," said Takeru. 

"Let me guess - it's not something good." 

"It's something _terrible_," Takeru blurted. "I destroy things! Just by touching them, I destroy them..." 

"Take it easy," said Yamato. "Don't get all stressed out - I get enough of that with Dad." He smiled a little, trying to get Takeru to accept the joke. "Look - it's obvious you don't destroy _everything_ you touch, or I'd be short a chair right now. Heck, if you destroyed everything you touched, you'd be walking around naked." 

The absurdity of that image was enough to get Takeru, not to laugh, but at least to relax a little. He gave a wan smile. 

"I guess you're right. Maybe I'm overreacting just a little," he said. "I was just... scared. I was afraid I might hurt somebody, or kill them, if I touched them by accident." 

"Well, back up and start from the beginning. Now, what do you mean when you say you destroy things by touching them? Do they blow up, or what?" 

Takeru shook his head. "Not exactly. They just... vanish. Disappear." 

"Then how do you know you destroyed them? Maybe you just make them... go somewhere else," Yamato suggested. "What did you make disappear?" 

"A pencil," said Takeru. He grimaced. "And my homework. I don't know how I'm going to explain that." 

"Okay, so it was just a pencil and a piece of paper. You haven't hurt anybody yet, so for all you know, it only works on stuff that isn't alive," said Yamato. "So don't panic until you know for sure." 

"You know, I hadn't thought of that," Takeru said, sounding a little more cheerful. "Hmm..." 

The next thing Yamato saw was Takeru reaching for the potted plant in the windowsill. His fingers brushed its leaves, and there was a soft glow as its leaves faded away, looking as if something had just taken a large bite out of it. 

"Hey, my plant!" Yamato exclaimed indignantly. 

He grabbed at the plant, snatching it away, though it was plain the damage had already been done. He ran his fingers over the damaged stalk... and a strange feeling came over him. It was as if something warm had started welling up inside him, something that flowed down his fingers and into the plant. As the boys and their Digimon stared in astonishment, the plant began stretching out new leaves and stalks. Within seconds, it was as if it had never been damaged at all. Everyone stared. 

"Well," said Takeru. "I guess we know what your talent is, now." 

"I guess so," said Yamato. For some reason, he sounded unhappy. 

"And I guess my talent works on living things, after all." 

"I guess so," said Yamato again. 

"Well, now what do we do?" asked Takeru. 

Yamato had no idea. There was a moment of awkward silence. In that quiet, they heard a beep. 

"What was that?" asked Yamato, startled out of some inner musing. 

"My D-Terminal just went off. I've got e-mail," said Takeru. "I don't know if I want to try reading it now, though. I might just delete my D-Terminal, and I don't think I could get a new one." 

The D-Terminal beeped again. 

"You ought to do something," said Gabumon. "It might be important." 

"But if I touch it..." Takeru protested. 

"I'll check _my_ e-mail," said Yamato. "If it's Digimon business, odds are, it'll be sent to all of us. Hang on." 

He turned on his computer, while Takeru fidgeted and the D-Terminal continued to blip in annoyance. At last, he was able to log in to his e-mail, where they found a single terse message waiting for them. It read, "_This is getting entirely out of hand. I want you all to report to the Digital World as soon as possible - no ifs, ands, or buts. Do not tell _anyone_ what the problem is._" It was signed by Gennai. 

"Finally," said Takeru in relief. "Maybe now we can talk to someone who has some answers." 

"I hope so," Yamato replied grimly. "Right now, I have a few words I'd like to say to him, too." 

Takeru looked at his brother, and for a moment, his concern for his own plight was counterbalanced by worry for Yamato, because he couldn't imagine what had put that angry look in his eyes. 

~*~

Miyako was trying to enjoy a quiet morning. _Trying_ was the key word, and unfortunately, she wasn't doing a very good job of it. Saturday morning was never the best time to relax around here, not in a house where teenagers or Digimon dwelled. True, it was better than it had been a few years ago, due to the relocation of a few household members. Her brother had graduated from college and found a paying job, allowing him to move into an apartment of her own, and her oldest sister had married a high school sweetheart and likewise moved out. Now all that was left was Miyako, her older sister Chizuru, her parents, and of course, her trusty Digimon. It should have been so much more comfortable and quiet in her apartment with the absence of two of her siblings, but somehow, her home seemed to remain as crowded and noisy as ever. 

"Chizuru, would you turn your music down?" Miyako called. "I can't hear myself think!" 

"I'm not playing it any louder than you were playing yours last night, and I didn't complain," said Chizuru. 

"Well, maybe you should have!" Miyako called back. 

There was a sudden drop in the noise level, and Miyako could only assume that her sister had given up on arguing and put her headphones on. Miyako felt a smug sense of satisfaction. She'd never been able to out-argue her brother Mantarou - he was too clever at turning her words back on her - and Momoe had a stolid way of simply ignoring her until she gave up in frustration, but Chizuru had never had the patience to stand against her for very long. 

"That was very strange," said Poromon. 

"What do you mean?" Miyako asked. She was busy playing games on her computer, and had already put the exchange with her sister out of her mind. 

"Well, I always thought you liked that song," the bird Digimon replied. 

"I do," said Miyako. "I just don't like being forced to listen to it whether I like it or not." 

"Hm," said Poromon. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. I never liked that song much, myself." 

Miyako laughed. "You know, Poromon... you understand a lot of things better than I do, but I don't think you'll ever figure out pop music." 

She went back to her game. She had been playing it without sound, the better to listen to her own music, but she hadn't bothered to restart the CD after her sister had started playing her own music - the clashing of two different songs was annoying, and try as she might, she'd been unable to tune the other music out. Now everything was quiet - too quiet for her taste - but she realized she couldn't start playing her own music again, because Chizuru would hear her and start complaining. She could use her headphones, except that she'd stepped on them the other day and they hadn't worked right since. It looked as if she was doomed to spend her morning trying to be silent. 

*_First I have too much noise; now I don't have enough!_* she thought, mildly peeved. 

Well, she wasn't going to let Chizuru get the better of her. She could stand being quiet for a while... 

She went on playing her game, trying not to think too much about how empty the room seemed without any noise and commotion to fill it. In the silence, the sound of her fingers on the keys seemed unnaturally loud. She could hear the rasp of her clothing when she moved, the whirr of her computer's fan, and the tiny whistle that was Poromon's breathing. Gradually, she became aware of other noises: the cars rushing down the street outside, the thump of footsteps going down the hall, the dishwasher swishing in the kitchen, and... 

"Chizuru, I thought I asked you to turn that music down!" she shouted. 

Immediately, she wished she hadn't; the sound of her own voice in her ears was loud enough to hurt. Compounding her pain, her sister bellowed back, "I _did_ turn it down! What more do you want?" 

Miyako clapped her hands over her ears, biting her tongue to keep from perpetuating her problem by crying out. That didn't help a whole lot; now all she could hear was the thud of her heart and the rush of her blood in her ears. She had closed her eyes reflexively, but a rush like thunder told her that Poromon was fluttering over to check on her. 

"Are you all right?" he chirped, and she cringed again. He wasn't shouting, but his high-pitched voice so close to her ears was hardly comfortable. 

"No," she whispered. Her voice sounded harsh and rasping, but at least it didn't hurt. "Could you please... not talk for a minute?" 

There was no answer; Poromon was too polite to refuse any request, no matter how strange, as long as she was suitably courteous about it. The thunder of his wingbeats stopped, and she assumed he had perched somewhere. She slowly opened her eyes to take stock of her situation. 

She closed them again. The light in the room seemed to have suddenly gotten a lot brighter; the sunlight streaming through her window was like staring into a spotlight. 

*_This is not good,_* she thought vaguely. *_Am I going crazy, or what?_* 

A sharp, high-pitched noise speared her ears, and she wanted to cry all over again. Who knew getting e-mail could be so painful? 

"Um, Miyako... I think your computer wants your attention," said Poromon hesitantly. 

"I can't read it right now," she said. Just now, even the thought of looking at that glowing computer screen made her eyes water. 

"Oh... Should I read it for you? It looks like it's from Gennai." 

That caught her attention. An e-mail - an important one - and just when she couldn't read it! 

"Go ahead," she said. "_Quietly_." 

There were several loud clicks, and Poromon began reading the message in his quietest chirp. Miyako listened, far more intently than she really needed to. So Gennai wanted to talk to them all? She could only hope he had some positive news! If he didn't, she was liable to give him a shouting-at, no matter how much it hurt! 

~*~

Mimi was very busy. Not that she ever really minded that - she liked being at the center of lots of people and activity. She had a natural gift for organizing people and getting them to do the things that needed doing, so it was only natural that when a committee needed heading, people asked her to do it. This particular committee seemed like her natural element: she and a number of others were busy preparing for a school dance. Naturally, Mimi had been put in charge of the decorating committee, and with the dance only a day away, she was keeping quite busy with it. 

Almost too busy. 

"Mimi, where do you want these tables?" called a boy. He and his friend were perspiring heavily as they attempted to move a stack of folding furniture. 

"Put them over there against the wall," she said, waving at the end of the auditorium furthest from the stage. 

A group of freshman girls appeared at her elbow. 

"Mimi, where are the flowers?" they asked. 

Mimi blinked, looking up from the inventory list she and Palmon had been going over. "I thought you had the flowers." 

"We thought you had them!" 

"But I saw you carrying them!" 

"We were," said one of the girls, "but we put them on the stage and now they're gone!" 

"Who moved the flowers?" Mimi shouted to the auditorium. 

Naturally, nobody admitted to moving them. A brief search revealed that someone, for some inexplicable reason, had thought the flowers weren't actually part of the decorations and had thrown them out. The flowers were retrieved from the trash can and dusted off, and the girls did what they could to make them look decent. Mimi went back to her inventory-taking feeling somewhat harried. It was one thing to be in charge, but did she really have to do _everything_ herself? 

"Mimi!" Another girl came running up to her, flushed and panting. "Mimi, Susan's putting up the streamers wrong, and I told her to stop it, and she won't listen to me!" 

Mimi sighed and went to address Susan, who, as it turned out, had put the streamers up just fine, after all. This led to her having to moderate a small argument between Susan and the other girl, who didn't want to admit she was wrong and tried to claim that Susan had fixed it when she has seen Mimi coming. The fact that it made no difference when she fixed it so long as it was fixed seemed lost to her. By the time it was all over, Mimi was beginning to feel the strain. 

"Mimi!" 

Mimi turned, ready to snap at whoever was distracting her, only to find that it was Palmon. 

"Mimi, are you okay?" asked Palmon, her large green eyes reflecting worry. "You look kind of stressed out." 

"I _am_ kind of stressed out," she said. "I'll be glad when we get all this straightened out. Where did the inventory list go?" 

"I think he has it," said Palmon, waving vaguely at a boy unpacking a box of decorative silver stars. 

Mimi went to retrieve her list. As it turned out, the boy had decided Mimi hadn't needed it anymore, and had thrown it out. She decided to give up on it and do without for a while. Instead, she oversaw the hanging of the silver stars from the auditorium ceiling, until... 

"Mimi!" 

Mimi rounded on the person calling to her, thinking to herself that the next person who shouted at her was liable to end up with a broken arm, at the least. 

"Now what?" she asked tiredly. 

"Will you help us hang the banner?" asked a boy. "We keep getting it crooked!" 

"Can't someone else help you?" she asked. 

"Everyone else is doing stuff!" 

Mimi throttled down the urge to ask if he thought she was on vacation, and went to supervise the banner hanging. When that was over, she turned to discover that the boys with the tables had set them up wrong, and it took some time to communicate how they were really supposed to be set up. Then she went back to the boys with the stars, only to be informed that someone had lost the tablecloths. By the time Patamon had finally located them (on the stage with the other materials, just where they were supposed to be) the decorating session was already running late, and Mimi's temper was running high. 

*_I wish these people would learn how to think for themselves,_* she thought wistfully. It was a good thing they were nearly done, because she was beginning to lose her patience. A few more minutes of this would have her crying in frustration. 

"Mimi!" called one of the never ending voices. 

Mimi lost her cool. 

"Would you all just stop it!" she exclaimed. "I am getting sick of it, I do not have to babysit you all night, I'm tired of being yelled at and I want to go home, so just _stop!_" 

There was dead silence. Mimi began to feel ashamed of herself. Everyone else was working hard and getting frustrated, just like she was. She had no right to whine like a little child. She looked around, expecting to see everyone staring at her... but they weren't. They were all looking fixedly in a variety of directions, frozen with their hands outstretched to place a vase of flowers or hang a star, or with their feet half-raised, halted in mid-step. It looked as if they had taken her order to stop quite literally. Mimi turned to comment on this to Palmon, and found her standing there as still as a potted plant. She didn't even seem to be breathing. Stunned, Mimi looked around more closely. Someone had dropped a star, and it had not yet reached the floor yet. Flower petals hung motionless in midair. 

*_Oh, no,_* she thought wildly. *_Oh no oh no oh no oh no... What did I do? How do I fix it?_* 

"Please move," she begged. "Please, please start moving again!" 

There was a warping noise, like a record being started up, as the noises of the cafeteria slowly rolled back to full speed. People continued to move around, talking and joking as if they had noticed nothing out of the ordinary. 

"That was strange," Mimi murmured. 

"Yeah, I know," said a girl next to her blithely. "I told him he shouldn't do it that way, but he did it anyway, and now we can't get the stereo to work at all, so..." 

She babbled on, but Mimi only half listened to her. She was occupied mostly with the problem of finding a way to get the girl to go away as quickly as possible so she could tell Palmon what had just happened in private. She was saved by the sound of a tell-tale beep. The sound had never been so sweet. 

"Oops, I'm sorry," she said to the girl, cutting off the flow of chatter. "It sounds like I've got some Digimon business to take care of, so I've got to go now, okay?" 

"Okay," said the girl, looking somewhat bemused. But what else could she say? That was one of the advantages of being a Chosen Child - nobody ever objected to letting Mimi get away with things, even skipping classes if she had to, if there was "Digimon business" involved. Mimi grabbed Palmon and dragged her out of the room, and she never once stopped. 

~*~

All in all, it was a frazzled-looking bunch who gathered at Gennai's house. Gennai himself was looking sterner than usual, and he only looked more serious as he watched the stream of arrivals. When Jyou and his new mascot arrived, he raised his eyebrows in surprise. 

"This is getting more serious than I thought," he murmured. 

Jyou sighed. "Tell me about it." 

"Man, I _am_ telling you about it," said Mike. "You just don't listen to me. If you listened to me, you'd have a lot fewer troubles." 

"Be quiet. I wasn't talking to you," Gennai said. 

Amazingly, Mike became quiet. Apparently Jyou's respect for the sage extended into his subconscious mind as well. 

Taichi and Hikari appeared a few seconds later. 

"Boy, am I glad to get out of the house!" were Taichi's first words. He waved a claw in illustration and managed to accidentally put a row of notches into a nearby bookshelf. 

"Careful!" Hikari scolded. 

"Go easy on him," said Takeru. He and Yamato had been the first to arrive. "It's not like these things are easy to control." 

Yamato said nothing; he appeared to have been sulking since the moment they had all arrived. When Taichi arrived, his stormy glare intensified a bit, but he said nothing as to what was going on in his head. Gabumon, sitting on the floor next to him, leaned against his leg in a doglike gesture of support. 

Miyako arrived next, causing a bit of a stir. Gennai's windows were all wide open, allowing the late-morning sunlight to stream through them, and the room was brightly lit as well as being full of excited talk. The minute she appeared, she curled up, whimpering in pain, her eyes squeezed shut, hands clamped over her ears. 

"Miyako, what's wrong?" Takeru shouted, making her whine again. 

"Not so loud!" Poromon hissed. "Be quiet! You're hurting her!" 

Silence fell instantly, and Miyako relaxed a tiny bit. 

"What's wrong with her?" Hikari whispered. 

"I'm not sure," Poromon admitted. "She's just turned very sensitive to light and noise all of a sudden. I don't know how to help her." 

"Maybe I can," said Jyou. 

Miyako heard the sound of people shifting to get out of his way, and of his footsteps, only slightly muffled by the carpeted floor. Then, suddenly, she heard nothing at all. Cautiously, she opened her eyes. She seemed to have been surrounded by fog. Then it cleared slowly, leaving the world looking dimmed, as if she were peering through dark sunglasses. 

"Is that better?" said Jyou. Thankfully, his voice sounded normal. 

"Much better," she said. "Thanks a lot. What did you do?" 

"Well, I figured as long as I'm going to be projecting illusions and things, I might as well put it to good use," he said. "I _think_ I've got it set up so most of the sound and light waves will be deflected away from you. It should last a while. Most of my projections do." He glared at Mike. 

"Oh," said Miyako, following Jyou's gaze. "Who's that guy?" 

"That's Mike," Gomamon piped up. "He's Jyou's subconscious. He's pretty cool!" 

"Oh," said Miyako again. 

"Hey, babe," said Mike, sidling over to greet her. "You know, you're kinda cute! How 'bout you dump this stick-in-the-mud and hang out with me, huh? I _am_ a dream guy, after all." 

"Get lost," Miyako told him. "I like guys with a little class, thank you very much." She shot an appreciative glance at Jyou, who blushed faintly. It didn't have time to develop any more, because she continued, "Speaking of which, where's Ken?" 

"I dunno," said Taichi. He made a move to scratch his head, remembered what he was doing, and stopped. "Guess he's not here yet." 

"We'll have to wait," said Gennai. "I'd like to have at least most of the team here before we start." 

They waited. Koushiro appeared next, looking rather relieved, as if glad someone else was taking charge. Within short order, Daisuke arrived, followed by Iori. They both looked faintly bothered, but nothing could keep Daisuke down for long, not even spontaneous teleportation, and Iori was good at hiding his emotions. When Mimi showed up, she looked so distraught that everyone stopped their conversations to stare at her. 

"Oh, no, I did it again!" she wailed. 

"Did what?" asked Daisuke. 

"It's okay, never mind," she said. "I thought I made everything freeze again." 

"Like ice?" asked Patamon curiously. 

"No, like time," she replied. 

"Does that mean all our powers have manifested by now?" asked Iori. 

"Mine have," said Daisuke. 

"Mine too," Takeru replied. 

"Unfortunately," Yamato muttered. It was unclear whether he was referring to Takeru or himself. 

"I guess that's what my problem is," Miyako sighed. 

"It sounds like everyone is accounted for, then," said Gennai. "I was afraid of this. I was hoping it would only be a few of you, at most... Should we keep waiting for Ken, do you think, or should we start now and let him catch up?" 

Nobody wanted to wait. It was plain to see they all wanted answers and wanted them _now_. Gennai sighed. 

"All right. We might as well get it over with," he said. "We might as well start at the beginning. I've checked and double-checked everything I can think of, and it seems our original conjecture was right. These manifestations are a direct result of your time spent in the Digital World... and, possibly, the connection formed with your Digimon. In essence, you are becoming something similar to digital beings yourself, complete with their... well, you'd call them _magical_ abilities, though I suppose they're really more like extraordinarily stretched scientific principles..." 

"_Any sufficiently developed technology is indistinguishable from magic,_" Koushiro quoted quietly. 

"What does that mean in layman's terms?" asked Yamato. 

"It means that basically there are explanations for what we're doing," said Jyou. "I do some really weird things, but I do them by bending sound and light waves, not by some kind of magic. It can be explained rationally; it's all just really weird." 

"Thanks for telling us," said Taichi. "Second question: how do we _stop_ doing them?" 

Gennai looked embarrassed. "I'm still working on that. In some extreme cases, I might be able to work out a short-term cure..." He cast a meaningful look at Takeru, who looked guiltily down at his hands. "But for now, it's entirely possible that you'll be having to deal with these... _ablities_ on a long-term basis - possibly for the rest of your lives." 

"I can't go through life like this!" said Miyako. "I'll go crazy!" 

Iori nodded. "These things are dangerous - we could hurt someone." 

"That is a possibility," said Gennai. "However, I am convinced that given time, you will be able to control them. Some of you have already shown some progress in that direction. You'll just have to work at it. In the meantime, I promise I will do everything in my power to find a permanent solution. You just have to understand that I'm not omnipotent, and I've never seen a case like this before. I want you to be prepared for a long wait... and in the meantime, you're going to have to take some precautions." 

"Like what?" asked Daisuke warily. 

"Well, for one thing," Gennai replied, "until we have this problem under control, I don't want you or Taichi playing soccer." 

"WHAT?" the boys exclaimed. 

"You've got to be kidding me," said Daisuke faintly. "I can't give up soccer! I just can't." 

"You have to," Gennai answered. "I don't want _any_ of you taking part in any competitive sports. These powers seem to manifest themselves chiefly when you're under stress, and a sporting event is just the kind of thing likely to bring them on." He glanced at Daisuke, who managed to look guilty. "Besides attracting some unwanted attention, you'd have an unfair advantage over the other players." 

"This isn't fair," Taichi muttered. "What am I going to _do_ all day?" 

"Practice keeping your claws under control," Tailmon suggested. "I'll help. I'm an expert." 

"Why do we have to worry about attracting attention, anyway?" Daisuke muttered. "We're already world-famous heroes, for crying out loud! People expect us to do weird things." 

"Yes, but this is different," said Gennai. "You are destined heroes, chosen specifically for your own special abilities. You are unique; no one else could have done what you did in exactly the way you did it. People know that. They can dream of being like you, but in their hearts, they know that you have been set apart. But these strange powers of yours appeared for only one reason: you spent too much time in the Digital World. Anyone who can open a gate to this world could gain such powers. Now, suppose that news got out? What do you think would happen?" 

"There would be chaos," said Koushiro, eyes widening. "Everyone on the planet would be trying to hack their way into the Digital World, trying to become a superhero!" 

"Exactly," said Gennai, nodding. "And that is why you absolutely _must_ keep these powers a secret. If any of this gets out to the general public... well, if you thought keeping Oikawa out was difficult..." 

"We understand," said Hikari. "Don't worry. We won't let anyone find out." 

No sooner had she spoken, when there was a flash, and Ken appeared, clutching Wormmon tightly and looking pale. It was a lucky thing Wormmon was an invertebrate, or he would have had a few bones broken by now. 

"Man, what's wrong with you?" asked Daisuke. "You didn't blow up an aunt or something, did you?" 

Ken shook his head. "No, it's not like that. It's just... well, I told you on the day our powers started manifesting, I had to go to the doctor's office, right?" 

"Yeah," said Taichi. "Hey, man, you aren't sick or something, are you?" 

"No," said Ken. "Nothing is wrong with me... nothing but the fact that I'm part digital now." 

There was a moment of silence. Koushiro and Hikari looked at each other. 

"The doctor," she said. 

"The one with the strange case," Koushiro agreed weakly. 

"What's with you two?" asked Yamato, drawn out of his malaise by curiosity. 

"Don't you get it?" asked Koushiro. "Ken got blood drawn at the doctor's office. The doctor sent it to a lab to have it analyzed. Do you think digitized blood is going to look normal?" 

A chill fell over the room, as the truth sunk into everyone's minds: before they had even fully grasped what had happened to them, their secret had gotten out. 


End file.
